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PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES \ 



R H-fTT' 6»R kAL READING 



PARTICULARLY DESIGNED TO 



FAMILIARIZE THE YOUNGER CLASSES OF READERS 



WITH THE 



PAUSES AND OTHER MARKS IN GENERAL USE ; 



AND TO INTRODUCE THEM TO THE PRACTICE OF 



MODULATION AND INFLECTION OF THE VOICE. 



BY R, G.PARKER, A. M. 

PRINCIPAL OF THE FRANKLIN GRAMMAR SCHOOL, BOSTON : 

AUTHOR OF "PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH 

COMPOSITION." "PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



ENGLISH GRAMMAR," &C. 



Natura Duce.' 



BOSTON : 

PUBLISHED BY CROCKER & BREWSTER 

47, Washington Street. 

NEW-YORK :— LEAVITT, LORD & CO. 

182, Broadway. 



1S36. 






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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 









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PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES 
RHETORICAL READING. 



PARTICULARLY DESIGNED TO 



FAMILIARIZE THE YOUNGER CLASSES OF READERS 



WITH THE 



PAUSES AND OTHER MARKS IN GENERAL USE 



AND TO INTRODUCE THEM TO THE PRACTICE OF 



MODULATION AND INFLECTION OF THE VOICE. 



BY 



R^ Gf PARKER, A. M. 



PRINCIPAL OF THE FRANKLIN GRAMMAR SCHOOL, BOSTON: 

AUTHOR OF " PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN ENGLISH 

COMPOSITION.' 7 "PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

ENGLISH GRAMMAR:" &C. 




BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY CROCKER AND BREWSTER ; 

47, Washington Street : 

NEW-YORK:— LEAVITT, LORD, & CO. 

182, Broadway. 

1835. 









Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1835, 
BY R. G. PARKER, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts, 



^4/7 



PREFACE 



i 



The principal difficulty in teaching the art of Reading", 
lies in conveying to the pupil a clear idea of tone, modu- 
lation, and inflection of the voice. If the teacher can 
induce the pupil to inflect his voice at all, he will find 
little difficulty in teaching him to modulate it rightly. 
Nature directs every one in this, in common conversation, 
with unerring precision. It is only therefore by "holding 
the mirror up to nature" that the teacher can expect to 
see her as she is. Few teachers have not noticed the 
animation and correctness with which even young chil- 
dren will modulate the colloquial parts of their story 
books. But the same children almost invariably fall into 
a lifeless, monotonous manner, when performing their 
portioned tasks in their reading-books at school. This 
arises from no want of excellent selections for exercises in 
Reading. But a wide distinction is to be drawn between 
a lesson and an exercise. We have many selections and 
compilations, abounding in all the beauties of taste, learn- 
ing and judgment ; which may, with great advantage, be 
put into the hands of the pupil, after he has been taught 
the art of reading ; but I have met with none, designed 
for the younger classes of learners, which have combined 
instruction with practice. It has been thought that di- 
rections for the management of the voice in reading, 
would be lost upon young learners, and that they are suit- 
able for those only, whose riper powers and more matured 
intellect better fit them for their reception. But it seems 
to have been forgotten, how easily children are taught to 
imitate. If, in connection with some colloquial sentence, 
another of less obvious import is given, requiring the same 
modulations and inflections of the voice, the child naturally 
catches the true manner of modulating the latter from the 
former. It is upon this principle of imitation and analogy 



IV PREFACE. 

combined, that the lessons in this volume are based. The 
author has been convinced, by experience, in the institu- 
tion under his charge, that the principle is a good one ; 
and experience, he thinks, does not often deceive. 
Whether the details of the plan are judiciously executed, 
is for others to decide. 

Such being the plan of the work, the author has thought 
it inexpedient to encumber its pages with rules, defini- 
tions, or explanatory details ; — because it has been fully 
proved that how simple soever a rule may be, the pupil 
will not readily apply it, unless particularly directed by 
the teacher ; and if nature and analogy will direct him to 
a correct and rhetorical modulation, rules and definitions 
become superfluous. 

A great deficiency in all our reading-books remains to 
be supplied. The Spelling-book and the Grammar, fur- 
nish copious definitions of the pauses and other marks 
used in written language. But there is no elementary 
work, designed for common schools, which furnishes par- 
ticular exercises for the management of those important 
marks. The author has endeavored, in the first part of 
this volume, to supply this remarkable defect; and he be- 
lieves, that, how much soever others may differ from him 
in the analogies which he has traced, in the subsequent 
lessons, between " the models" and the exercises under the 
models, he is justly entitled to the credit of having origin- 
ated the two important principles above mentioned, upon 
which the plan of the work has been based ; and he is 
encouraged, not only by experience, but by the confident 
opinion of many judicious friends to whom the plan has 
been unfolded, to believe that this little volume, assisted 
by the familiar explanations of the teacher, will serve as a 
better introduction to the Art of Reading, than a more la- 
bored treatise formed on rhetorical rule. A lesson is first 
devoted to each of the respective pauses and other marks, 
and the pupil is then led by progressive steps, in the sub- 
sequent lessons, from the simplest sentences, requiring 
little attention to pause, emphasis, or inflection of the 
voice, to those which involve the highest exertions of taste- 
and intellect. 

Orange Street, January 1835. 



PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES 



RHETORICAL READING 



LESSON I. 

THE PERIOD. 

1. The Period is a round dot or mark like this • 

2. The Period is generally placed after the last word in 
a sentence. 

3. When you come to a Period you must stop, as if 
you had nothing more to read. 

4. You must pronounce the word which is immediately 
before a period, with the falling inflection of the voice. 

5. But you do not know what I mean by the falling in- 
flection of the voice. 

6. I am now going to tell you. 

7. Listen attentively to what I am going to say. 

8. Charles has bought a new hat. 

9. That sentence was read with the falling inflection of 
the voice. 

10. I am going to tell you in the next lesson what I 
mean by the rising inflection of the voice. 

11. Look in the next lesson and find the eighth sen- 
tence which you have just read. 

12. Tell me whether you would read it in the same 
manner in the second lesson. 

*1 



PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



LESSON II. 

THE INTERROGATION POINT, OR QUESTION. 

The Interrogation Point, or Question, is a mark like 
this 1 

The Interrogation Point, or Question, shows that a 
question is asked ; and is generally read with the rising 
inflection of the voice. 

Examples. 

13. Has Charles bought a new hat 1 

14. Did you say that Charles has bought a new hat ? 

15. Did you read the thirteenth sentence in the same 
manner that you read the eighth 1 

16. Do you now know what I mean by the rising inflec- 
tion of the voice 1 

17. Do you know now how to read a sentence with the 
falling inflection of the voice ? 

18. Shall I tell you again ? Will you listen atten- 
tively ? 

19. Are the little marks after the sentences in the first 
lesson, like those at the end of the sentences in this les- 
son ? 

20. Do you know that you have read all the sentences 
in this lesson with the rising inflection of the voice 1 

21. Will you look at the following sentences, and read 
those which are matked D, with the falling inflection of 
the voice ; and those which are marked Q,, with the rising 
inflection of the voice 1 

22. D. John has arrived. 

23. Q,. Has John arrived ? 

24. D. My father is very well. 

25. Q,. Is your mother well 1 

26. D. Mary has lost her book. 

27. Q,. Has Caroline found her work-box ? 

28. D. Those who have not read these sentences well 
must read them over again. 

29. Q. May those who have read them well proceed to 
the next lesson ? 

30. D. As soon as they understand what they have 
read, I shall give them a new lesson. 



RHETORICAL READING. / 

31. Q,. Will they all be as easy as this ? 

32. D. That will depend upon yourself more than 
on me. 

33. Q-. Does the D in the above sentences stand for 
a declaration ? 

34. D. Yes ; and the Q, stands for a question. 



LESSON III. 

Sometimes the sentence which ends with an interrogation 
point, is read with the falling inflection of the voice. 

Examples. 

35. What o'clock is it? 

36. How do you do to-day ? 

37 What have you got in your hand? 

38. Where have you been? 

39. When did your father return home ? 

40. How did you hear that story? 

41. How much did he give for his book ? 

42. Whose hat is that in the entry ? 

43. What did you see in the street? 

44. How high is the steeple of St. Paul's Church ? 

45. Where does that man live ? 

46. Which of those books do you prefer ? 

47. W T ho is that at the other end of the room ? 

48. Whither is that bird flying? 

49. Why did you leave your place just now ? 

50. Wherefore do you not try to read correctly? 



LESSON IV. 

Sometimes the first part of a sentence ending with an 
interrogation point, must be read with the rising inflection 
of the voice, and the last part with the falling inflection. 

Examples. 

51. Shall I give you a peach, or an apple ? 

52. Would you rather have a kite, or a foot-ball ? 



8 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

53. Is that John, or Charles ? 

54. Are you going home, or into the school-house ? 

55. Will you go now, or will you stay a little longer? 

56. Is that a Grammar, or a Geography ? 

57. Do you expect to ride, or to walk ? 

58. Does your father intend to build his new house in 
the city, or in the country ? 

59. Shall we now attend to our reading lessons, or to 
our lessons in spelling ? 

60. Did you go to church on the last Sabbath, or did 
you stay at home ? 



LESSON V. 

Sometimes the first part of a sentence ending with a 
note of interrogation, must be read with the falling inflec- 
tion of the voice, and the latter part with the rising inflec- 
tion. 

Examples. 

61. Where have you been to-day ? At home ? 

62. Whose books are those on the floor ? Do they be- 
long to John ? 

63. Whither shall I go ? Shall I return home ? 

64. What is that on the top of the house? Is it a bird? 

65. What are you doing with your book ? Are you 
tearing out the leaves ? 

66. Whom shall I send ? Will John go willingly ? 

67. When shall I bring you those books ? Would you 
like to have them to-day? 

68. Who told you to return ? Did your father ? 

69. How much did you pay for that book? More than 
three shillings ? 

70. How old shall you be on your next birth-day? 
Eleven ? 

71. Why did you not arrive sooner ? Were you ne- 
cessarily detained ? 

72. How often shall my brother sin against me, and I 
forgive him? Till seven times ? 

73. But what excuse can the Englishman plead ? The 
custom of duelling? 

74. What concern they ? The general cause ? 

75. How many lessons are there in this book? Are 
there more than twenty-five ? 



RHETORICAL READING. 



LESSON VI. 



In this lesson some of the sentences are questions requir~ 
ing the rising, and some the falling inflection of the voice, 
A few sentences also ending ivith a period are inserted, 
No directions are given to the pupil with regard to the 
manner of reading them, it being desirable that his own 
understanding, under the guidance of nature alone, should 
direct him. But it may be observed that questions that 
can be answered by yes, or no, generally require the rising 
inflection of the voice ; and that questions that cannot be 
answered by yes, or no, generally require the falling in- 
flection. 

Examples. 

76. John, where have you been this morning 1 

77. Have you seen my father to-day ? 

78. That is a beautiful top. 

79. Where did you get it? 

80. I bought it at the toy-shop. 

81. What did you give for it? 

82. I gave a shilling for jt. 

83. What excuse have you for coming late this morn- 
ing ? Did you not know that it is past the school 
hour? 

84. If you are so inattentive to your lessons, do you 
think that you shall make much improvement? 

85. Will you go, or stay? Will you ride or walk? 

86. Will you go to-day, or to-morrow ? 

87. Did he resemble his father, or his mother ? 

88. Js this book yours, or mine ? 

89. Do you hold the watch to-night ? We do, Sir. 

90. Did you say that he was armed? He was armed. 

91. Did you not speak to it ? I did. 

92. Art thou he that should come, or must we expect 
another person? 

93. Why are you so silent? Have you nothing to say ? 

94. Who hath believed our report? To whom hath 
|he arm of the Lord been revealed ? 



10 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IW 

LESSON VII. 

THE EXCLAMATION POINT. 

The Exclamation Point is a mark like this I 

The Exclamation Point is placed at the end of senten- 
ces which express surprise, astonishment, wonder, or ad- 
miration, and other strong feelings, and such sentences are 
generally read with the falling inflection of the voice. 

Examples. 

95. How cold it is to-day ! 

96. What a beautiful top that is ! 

97. How mysterious are the ways of Providence f 

98. How noisy those boys are in the street ! 

99. What a simple fellow he is to spend his money so 
uselessly ! 

100. Poor fellow, he does not know what to do with 
himself ! 

101. What a fine morning it is ! How brightly the sun 
shines ! How verdant is the landscape ! How sweetly 
the birds sing S 

102. Look here ! See what a handsome doll my moth- 
er has just given me ! 

103. Good Heaven ! What an eventful life was hers \ 

104. Good friends ! Sweet friends ! Let me not stir 
you up to such a sudden flood of mutiny ! 

105. Oh what a fall was there my countrymen ! 

106. Oh disgrace upon manhood ! It is strange f It 
is dreadful ! 

107. Alas, poor country, almost afraid to know itself! 

108. Oh glory ! glory ! mighty one on earth ! How 
justly imaged in this waterfall ! 

109. Tremendous torrent ! for an instant hush the ter- 
rors of thy voice ! 

110. Ah, terribly the hoarse and rapid whirlpools rage 
there ! 

111. Oh! deep enchanting prelude to repose The 
dawn of bliss, the twilight of our woes L 

112. Daughter of Faith, awake!: arise I illume the 
dread unknown, the chaos of the tomb t 



RHETORICAL READING. 11 

113. It is a dread and awful thing to die ! 

114. Lovely art thou, oh Peace! and lovely are thy 
children, and lovely are the prints of thy footsteps in the 
green valleys ! 

115. Why, here comes my father! How quickly he 
has returned ! Oh how glad I am to see him ! 



LESSON VIII. 



THE PERIOD, INTERROGATION, AND EXCLAMATION UNITED. 

The pupil was taught in the first lesson (See No. 3,) 
that when he comes to a period he must stop as if he had 
nothing more to read. He is now informed in this lesson 
how long to stop. The general rule is, to stop until he 
has had time enough to count four. At the end of a para- 
graph, whether the period or some other mark be used, the 
reader should make a longer stop than at an ordinary sen- 
tence. The Interrogation and Exclamation are generally 
pauses of the same length with the Period. 

Examples. 

116. George is a good boy. He gets his lesson well. 
He is attentive to the instructions of his teacher. He is 
orderly and quiet at home. 

117. A good scholar is known by his obedience to the 
rules of the school. He obeys the directions of his teach- 
er. His attendance at the proper time of school is always 
punctual. He is remarkable for his diligence and atten- 
tion. He reads no other book than that which he is de- 
sired to read by his master. He studies no lessons but 
those which are appointed for the day. He takes no toys 
from his pocket to amuse himself or others. He pays no 
regard to those who attempt to divert his attention from 
his book. 

118. Do you know who is a good scholar? Can you 
point out many in this room 1 How negligent some of 
our fellow pupils are ! Ah ! I am afraid that many will 
regret that they have not improved their time ! 

119. Why here comes Charles ! Did you think that he 
would return so soon ? I suspect that he has not been 



12 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

pleased with his visit. Have you Charles 1 And were 
your friends glad to see you ? When is cousin Jane to be 
married 1 Will she make us a visit before she is married? 
Or will she wait until she has changed her name 1 

120. My dear Edward, how happy I am to see you. I 
heard of your approaching happiness with the highest 
pleasure. How does Rose do ? And how is our old 
whimsical friend the Baron 1 You must be patient and 
answer all my questions. I have many inquiries to make. 

121. The first dawn of morning found Waverley on the 
esplanade in front of the old Gothick gate of the castle. 
But he paced it long before the draw-bridge was lowered. 
He produced his order to the sergeant of the guard and 
was admitted. The place of his friend's confinement was 
a gloomy apartment in the central part of the castle. 

122. Do you expect to be as high in your class as your 
brother ? Did you recite your lessons as well as he did ? 
Lazy boy ! Careless child ! You have been playing 
these two hours. You have paid no attention to your les- 
sons. You cannot say a word of them. How foolish 
you have been ! What a waste of time and talents you 
have made. 



LESSON IX. 

THE COMMA. 

The Comma is a mark like this ? 

When you come to a comma in reading, you must gener- 
ally make a short pause. Sometimes you must use the 
falling inflection of the voice, when you come to a comma ; 
and sometimes you must keep your voice suspended as if 
some one had stopped you before you had read all that you 
intended. The general rule when you come to a comma is, 
ta stop just long enough to count one. In this lesson 
you must keep your voice suspended when you come to a 
comma. 

Examples. 

123. Diligence, industry, and proper improvement of 
time, are material duties of the young. 

124. He is generous, just, charitable, and humane. 



RHETORICAL READING. IS 

125. By wisdom, by art, by the united strength of a 
civil community, men have been enabled to subdue the 
whole race of lions, bears, and serpents. 

126. The genuine glory, the proper distinction of the 
rational species, arises from the perfection of the mental 
powers. 

127. Courage is apt to be fierce, and strength is often 
exerted in acts of oppression. Wisdom is the associate 
of justice. It assists her to form equal laws, to pursue 
right measures, to correct power, to protect weakness, and 
to unite individuals in a common interest and general 
welfare. Heroes may kill tyrants, but it is wisdom and 
laws that prevent tyranny and oppression. 

[Sometimes u comma must be read like a question.] 

128.* Do you pretend to sit as high in school as An- 
thony ? Did you read as correctly, speak as loudly, or 
behave as well as he ? 

128. Do you pretend to sit as high on Olympus as 
Hercules ? Did you kill the Nemean lion, the Eryman- 
thian boar, the Lernean serpent, or Stymphalian birds 1 

129. Are you the boy, of whose good conduct I have 
heard so much ? 

129. Art thou theThracian robber, of whose exploits I 
have heard so much ? 

130. Have you not misemployed your time, wasted your 
talents, and passed your life in idleness and vice ? 

130. Hast thou not set at defiance my authority, vio- 
lated the public peace, and passed thy life in injuring the 
persons and properties of thy fellow-subjects? 

131. Who is that standing up in his place, with his hat 
on, and his books under his arm? 

131. Whom are they ushering from the world, with all 
this pageantry and long parade of death ? 

132. Did he recite his lesson correctly, read audibly, 
and appear to understand what he read ? 

132. Was his copy written neatly, his letters made hand- 
somely, and no blot appear on his book ? 



*Some of the sentences which follow will be marked with the same 
number ; and such sentences are to be read in the same manner, and with 
the same inflection of the voice, &c. 



14 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

132. Was his wealth stored fraudfully, the spoil of or- 
phans wronged, and widows who had none to plead their 
rights 1 

132. Have not you, too, gone about the earth like an 
evil genius, blasting the fair fruits of peace and indus- 
try ? 

133. Is that a map which you have before you, with the 
leaves blotted with ink ? 

133. Is this a dagger, which I see before me, the han- 
dle toward my hand 1 

133. Will you say that your time is your own, and 
that you have a right to employ it in the manner you 
please ? 

[Sometimes the comma is to be read like a period, with 
the falling inflection of the voice. ~\ 

134. The teacher directed him to take his seat, 
to study his lesson, and to pass no more time in idle- 
ness. 

134. It is said by unbelievers that religion is dull, un- 
social, uncharitable, enthusiastic, a damper of human joy, 
a morose intruder upon human pleasure. 

134. Charles has brought his pen instead of his pencil, 
his paper instead of his slate, his grammar instead of his 
arithmetic. 

134. Perhaps you have mistaken sobriety for dulness, 
equanimity for moroseness, disinclination to bad company 
for aversion to society, abhorrence of vice for uncharita- 
bleness, and piety for enthusiasm. 

135. Henry was careless, thoughtless, heedless, and 
inattentive. 

135. This is partial, unjust, uncharitable, iniquitous. 

135. The history of religion is ransacked for instances 
of persecution, of austerities, and enthusiastic irregulari- 
ties, 

135. Religion is often supposed to be something which 
must be practised apart from every thing else, a distinct 
profession, a peculiar occupation. 

135. Dryden's mind has a larger range, and he collects 
his images and illustrations from a more extensive circum- 
ference of science. Dryden knew more of man in his 
general nature, and Pope in his local manners. The no- 



RHETORICAL READING. 15 

tions of Dryden were formed by comprehensive specula- 
tion, and those of Pope by minute attention. 
I 135. Oh ! you might deem the spot the spacious cavern 
of some virgin mine, deep in the womb of earth, where 
the gems grow, and diamonds put forth radiant rods, and 
bud with amethyst and topaz. 

[Sometimes the comma is to he read like an exclamation*} 

136. Oh how can you destroy those beautiful things 
which your father procured for you ! that beautiful top, 
those polished marbles, that excellent ball, and that beau- 
tifully painted kite, oh how can you destroy them, and 
expect, that he will buy you new ones ! 

136. Oh how canst thou renounce the boundless store 
of charms that nature to her votary yields! the warbling 
woodland, the resounding shore, the pomp of groves, the 
garniture of fields, all that the genial ray of morning gilds, 
and all that echoes to the song of even, all that the moun- 
tain's sheltering bosom shields, and all the dread magnifi- 
cence of heaven, oh how canst thou renounce and hope to 
be forgiven ! 

137. Oh winter \ ruler of the inverted year! thy scat- 
tered hair with sleetlike ashes filled, thy breath congealed 
upon thy lips, thy cheeks fringed with a beard made white 
with other snows than those of age, thy forehead wrapped 
in clouds, a leafless branch thy sceptre, and thy throne a 
sliding car, indebted to no wheels, but urged by storms 
along its slippery way, I love thee, all unlovely as thou 
seemest, and dreaded as thou art! 

13^. Lovely art thou, O Peace ! and lovely are thy 
children, and lovely are the prints of thy footsteps in the 
green valleys. 

[Sojnetimes the comma and other marks are to be read 
without any pause or inflection of the voice.} 

138. You see, boys, what a fine school-room we have, 
in which you can pursue your studies. 

*The pupil will notice that some sentences which contain a question, to 
which no answer is given or expected, are marked with an exclamation 
point instead of an interrogation point; but such sentences generally ex- 
press surprise or astonishment, &c. The sentences numbered 13b are of 
this kind. 



16 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

138. You see, my son, this wide and krge firmament 
over our heads, where the sun and moon, and all the stars 
appear in their turns. 

138. Therefore, my child, fear, and worship, and love 
God. 

138. He, that can read as well as you can, James, need 
not be ashamed to read loud. 

138. He, that can make the multitude laugh and weep 
as you can, Mr. Shakspeare, need not fear scholars. 

139. I consider it my duty, at this time, to tell you, that 
you have done something, of which you ought to be 
ashamed. 

139. I deem it my duty on this occasion, to suggest^ 
that the land is not yet wholly free from the contamination 
of a traffic, at which every feeling of humanity must re- 
volt. 

140. The Spaniards, while thus employed, were sur- 
rounded by many of the natives, who gazed, in silent ad- 
miration upon actions which they could not comprehend, 
and of which they did not foresee the consequences. The 
dress of the Spaniards, the whiteness of their skins, their 
Wards, their arms, appeared strange and surprising. 

141. Yet, fair as thou art, thou shunnest to glide, beau- 
tiful stream ! by the village side, but windest away from 
the haunts of men, to silent valley and shaded glen. 

142. But it is not for man, either solely or principally, 
that night is made. 

143. We imagine, that, in a world of our own creation, 
there would always be a blessing in the air, and flowers 
and fruits on the earth. 

144. Share with you, said his father ? so the industri- 
ous must lose his labor to feed the idle, 

144. His brother, Moses, did not imitate his example. 



LESSON X. 

[Sometimes the pause of a comma must be made where 
there is no pause in your booh. Spaces are left in the fol- 
lowing sentences where the pause is proper.] 

145. James was very much delighted with the pic- 
ture which he saw. 



Rhetorical reading. 17 

145. The Europeans were hardly less amazed at 
the scene now before them. 

146. The inhabitants were entirely naked. Their 
black hair, long and curled, floated upon their shoulders, 
or was bound in tresses around their head. 

147. Persons of reflection and sensibility contem- 
plate with interest the scenes of nature. 

148. The succession and contrast of the seasons 
give scope to that care and foresight, diligence and indus- 
try, which are essential to the dignity and enjoyment 
of human beings. 

149. The eye is sweetly delayed on every object to 
which it turns. It is grateful to perceive how widely, 
yet chastely, nature hath mixed her colors and painted 
her robe. 

150. Winter compensates for the want of attractions 
abroad by fireside delights and homefelt joys. In 
all this interchange and variety we find reason to ac- 
knowledge the wise and benevolent care of the God 
of seasons, 

[The pupil may read the following sentences ; but before reading 
them he may tell after what word the pause should be made. The 
pause is not printed in the sentences, but it must be made when read- 
ing them. And here it may be obsetved, that the comma is more fre- 
quently used to point out the grammatical divisions of a sentence, than 
to indicate a rest or cessation of the voice. Good reading depends 
much upon skill and judgment in making those pauses which the sense 
of the sentence dictates, but which are not noted in the book ; and the 
sooner the pupil is taught to make them, with proper discrimination, 
the surer and the more rapid will be his pi ogress in the art of read- 
ing.] 

151. While they were at their silent meal a horseman 
came galloping to the door, and, with a loud voice, called 
out that he had been sent express with a letter to Gilbert 
Ainslee. 

152. The golden head that was wont to rise at that part 
of the table was now wanting. 

153. For even though absent from school I shall get 
the lesson. 

153. For even though dead will 1 control the trophies 
of the capitol. 

154. Jt is now two hundred years since attempts have 
b«en made to civilize the North American savage. 

**2 



tS PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

155. Doing well has something more in it than the ful- 
filling of a duty. 

156. You will expect me to say something of the lonely 
records of the former races that inhabited this country. 

157. There is no virtue without a characteristic beauty 
to make it particularly loved by the good, and to make the 
bad ashamed of their neglect of it. 

158. A sacrifice was never yet offered to a principle,, 
that was not made up to us by self-approval, and the con- 
sideration of what our degradation would have been had 
we done otherwise. 

159-. The following story has been handed down by 
family tradition for more than a century. 

160. The succession and contrast of the seasons give 
scope to that care and foresight, diligence and industry 
which are essential to the dignity and enjoyment of human 
beings, whose happiness is connected with the exertion of 
their faculties. 

161. A lion of the largest size measures from eight to 
nine feet from the muzzle to the origin of the tail, which 
last is of itself about four feet long. The height of the 
larger specimens is four or five feet. 

162. The following anecdote will show with what obsti- 
nate perseverance pack horses have been known to pre- 
serve the line of their order. 

163. Good morning to you Charles! Whose book is 
that which you have under your arm? 

163. A benison upon thee, gentle huntsman ! Whose 
towers are these that overlook the wood I 

164. The incidents of the last few days have been such 
as will probably never again be witnessed by the people 
of America, and such as were never before witnessed by 
any nation under heaven. 

165. To the memory of Andre his country has erected 
the most magnificent monuments, and bestowed on his 
family the highest honors and most liberal rewards. To 
the memory of Hale not a stone has been erected, and the 
traveller asks in vain for the place of his Long sleep. 



RHETORICAL READING. 19 

LESSON XL 

THE SEMICOLON. 

The Semicolon is made by a comma placed under a 
period, thus • 

When you come to a semicolon, you must generally make 
a pause twice as long as you would make at a comma. 

Sometimes you must use the falling inflection of the 
voice when you come to a semicolon, and sometimes you 
must keep your voice suspended, as you were directed in the 
ninth lesson. The general ride when you come to a semi- 
colon is, to stop just long enough to count two. 

When you come to a semicolon in this lesson you must 
keep your voice suspended as you were directed in the 
ninth lesson. 

Examples. 

166. That God whom you see me daily worship ; whom 
I daily call upon to bless both you and me, and all man- 
kind ; whose wondrous acts are recorded in those Scrip- 
tures which you constantly read ; that God who created 
the heaven and the earth is your Father and Friend. 

167. My son, as you have been used to look to me in 
all your actions, and have been afraid to do any thing un- 
less you first knew my will ; so let it now be a rule of 
your life to look up to God in all your actions. 

168. If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or 
any poor without covering ; if his loins have not blessed 
me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my 
sheep ; if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, 
when I saw my help in the gate; then let mine arm fall 
from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from 
the bone. 

169. The stranger did not lodge in the street ; but I 
opened my doors to the traveller. 

170. If my land cry against me, or the furrows thereof 
complain ; if I have eaten the fruits thereof without mon- 
ey, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life ; 
let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockles instead of 
barley. 



20 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

171. When the fair moon, refulgent lamp of night, o'er 
heaven's clear azure spreads her sacred light ; when not 
a breath disturbs the deep serene, and not a cloud o'er- 
casts the solemn scene ; around her throne the vivid plan- 
ets roll, and stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole ; o'er 
the dark trees a yellower verdure shed, and tip with silver 
every mountain's head; then shine the vales, the rocks in 
prospect rise, a flood of glory bursts from all the skies ; the 
conscious swains rejoicing in the sight, eye the blue vault, 
and bless the useful light. 

172. When the battle was ended, the stranger disap- 
peared ; and no person knew whence he had come, or 
whither be had gone. 

173. The relief was so timely, so sudden, so unexpect- 
ed, and so providential ; the appearance and the retreat of 
him who furnished it were so unaccountffble ; his person 
was so dignified and commanding ; his resolution so supe- 
rior, and his interference so decisive, that the inhabitants 
believed him to be an angel, sent by heaven for their pres- 
ervation. 



LESSON XII. 

Sometimes you must use the falling inflection of the 
voice when you come to a semicolon, as in the following 

Examples, 

174. Let your dress be sober, clean and modest; not 
to set off the beauty of your person, but to declare the 
sobriety of your mind ; that your outward garb may re- 
semble the inward plainness and simplicity of your heart. 

175. In meat and drink, observe the rules of Christian 
temperance and sobriety ; consider your body only as the 
servant and minister of your soul ; and only so nourish it, 
as it may best perform an humble an obedient service. 

176. Condescend to all the weakness and infirmities of 
your fellow creatures ; cover their frailties ; love their ex- 
cellencies; encourage their virtues ; relieve their wants; 
rejoice in their prosperity ; compassionate their distress ; 
receive their friendship; overlook their unkindness; for- 



RHETORICAL READING. 21 

give their malice ; be a servant of servants; and conde- 
scend to do the lowest offices for the lowest of mankind. 

177. Struck with the sight of so fine a tree, he hastened 
to his own, hoping to find as large a crop upon it ; but, to 
his great surprise, he saw scarcely any thing, except 
branches, covered with moss, and a few yellow leaves. 

178. In sleep's serene oblivion laid, I've safely passed 
the silent night ; again I see the breaking shade, again 
behold the morning light. 

179. New-born, I bless the waking hour ; once more 
with awe, rejoice to be ; my conscious soul resumes her 
power, and soars, my guardian God, to thee. 

180. That deeper shade shall break away ; that deeper 
sleep shall leave mine eyes ; thy light shall give eternal 
day ; thy love, the rapture of the skies. 

181. In the sight of our law the African slave trader is 
a pirate and a felon ; and in the sight of heaven, an offend- 
er far beyond the ordinary depth of human guilt. 

182. Between Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose ; 
the spectacles set them unhappily wrong ; the point in dis- 
pute was, as all the world knows, to which the said spec- 
tacles ought to belong. 

183. What hope of liberty is there remaining, if what- 
ever is their pleasure it is lawful for them to do; if what 
is lawful for them to do, they are able to do; if what 
they are able to do, they dare do ; if what they dare do, 
they really execute ; and if what they execute, is no way 
offensive to you ? 

184. Mercury, I won*t go in a boat with that fellow, 
He has murdered his countryman ; he has murdered his 
friend ; I say I won't go in a boat with that fellow, I will 
swim over the river ; I can swim like a duck. 

185. It is not the use of the innocent amusements of 
life which is dangerous, but the abuse of them ; it is not 
when they are occasionally, but when they are constantly 
pursued; when the love of amusement degenerates into a 
passion ; and when from being an occasional indulgence 
it becomes an habitual desire. 

186. The prevailing color of the body of a tiger is a 
deep tawny, or orange yellow ; the face, throat, and lower 
part of the belly are nearly white ; and the whole is trav- 
ersed by numerous long black stripes. 

187. The horse next to the Hottentot is the favorite 
prey of the lion ; and the elephant and camel are both 



22 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

highly relished ; while the sheep, owing probably to its 
woolly fleece, is seldom molested. 

188. The lion, with his strong teeth, breaks large bones 
with the greatest ease ; and he often swallows their frag- 
ments along with the flesh. 

189. The horse is quick-sighted ; he can see things in 
the night which his rider cannot perceive ; but when it is 
too dark for his sight, his sense of smelling is his guide. 

190. In summer, horses in the country feed on grass 
or on grass and oats ; in winter they eat oats, corn, and 
hay. When grazing in the pasture, they always choose 
the shortest grass, because it is the sweetest; and as they 
have cutting teeth in both their jaws, they can eat very 
near the ground. 



LESSON XIII. 

The semicolon is sometimes used for a question, and 
sometimes as an exclamation. 

Examples. 

192. Hast thou not set at defiance my authority ; vio- 
lated the public peace, and parsed thy life in injuring the 
persons and properties of thy fellow-subjects? 

193. Oh it was impious; it was unmanly; it was poor 
and pitiful ! 

194. Have not you too gone about the earth like an 
evil genius; blasting the fair fruits of peace and industry; 
plundering, ravaging, killing, without law, without justice, 
merely to gratify an insatiable lust for dominion? 

195. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to 
sight? Or art thou but a dagger of the mind ; a false 
creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? 

196. Has Mercury struck thee with his enfeebling rod ; 
or art thou ashamed to betray thy awkwardness? [This 
sentence should be read as directed in Lesson 4.] 

197. By such apologies shall man insult his Creator ; 
and shall he hope to flatter the ear of omiiipotence ? 
Think you that such excuses will gain new importance in 
their ascent to the Majesty on high ; and will you trust 



RHETORICAL READING. 23 

the interests of eternity in the hands of these superficial 
advocates ? 

198. And shall not the Christian blush to repine ; the 
Christian from before whom the veil is removed ; to whose 
eyes are revealed the glories of heaven? 

199. Why, for so many a year, has the poet and the 
philosopher wandered amidst the fragments of Athens or 
of Rome; and paused with strange and kindling feelings, 
amidst their broken columns, their mouldering temples, 
their deserted plains ? It is because their day of glory is 
passed ; it is because their name is obscured ; their power 
is departed ; their influence is lost 1 

200. Where are they who taught these stones to grieve; 
where are the hands that hewed them ; and the hearts 
that reared them? 

201. Hope ye by these to avert oblivion's doom ; in 
grief ambitious, and in ashes vain? 

202. Can no support be offered; can no source of con- 
fidence be named ? 

203. Is this the man that made the earth to tremble; 
that shook the kingdoms? That made the world like a 
desert ; that destroyed the cities? 

203. Falsely luxurious, will not man awake; and, 
springing from the bed of sloth, enjoy the cool, the fra- 
grant, and the silent hour to meditation due and sacred 
song ? 

204. But who shall speak before the king when he is 
troubled ; and who shall boast of knowledge when he is 
distressed by doubt ? 

205. Who would in such a gloomy state remain longer 
than nature craves ; when every muse and every bloom- 
ing pleasure wait without, to bless the wildly devious 
morning walk ? 

206. Farewell ! May the smile of Him who resides in 
the heaven of heavens be upon thee ; and against thy 
name, in the volume of his will, may happiness be writ- 
ten ! 

207. What a glorious monument of human invention, 
that has thus triumphed over wind and wave ; has brought 
the ends of the earth in communion ; has established an 
interchange of blessings, pouring into the sterile regions of 
the north all the luxuries of the south ; diffused the light 
of knowledge and the charities of cultivated life ; and has 



24 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

thus bound together those scattered portions of the human 
race, between whom nature seemed to have thrown an in- 
surmountable barrier ! 

208. Who that bears a human bosom, hath not often 
felt, how dear are all those ties which bind our race in 
gentleness together ; and how sweet their force, let for- 
tune's wayward hand the while be kind or cruel ? 

209. If it was intended for us as well as you, why has 
not the Great Spirit given it to us ; and not only to us, 
but why did he not give to our forefathers the knowledge 
of that book, with the means of rightly understanding it? 



LESSON XIV. 

THE COLON. 

The Colon consists of two periods placed one above the 
other, thus I 

Sometimes the passage ending with a colon is to be read 
with the voice suspended ; but it shoidd generally be read 
with the falling inflection of the voice. In this lesson the 
falling inflection is required. 

The general rule when you come to a colon is to stop 
just long to count three; or three times as long as you 
are directed to pause at a comma. 

Examples. 

210. The smile of gaiety is often assumed while the 
heart aches within : though folly may laugh, guilt will 
sting. 

211. There is no mortal truly wise and restless at the 
same time : wisdom is the repose of the mind. 

212. Nature felt her inability to extricate herself from 
the consequences of guilt : the gospel reveals the plan of 
Divine interposition and aid. 

213. Nature confessed some atonement to be neces- 
sary : the gospel discovers that the atonement is made. 

214. Law and order are forgotten : violence and 
rapine are abroad : the golden cords of society are 
loosed. 



RHETORICAL READING. 25 

215. The temples are profaned : the soldier's curse re- 
sounds in the house of God : the marble pavement is 
trampled by iron hoofs : horses neigh beside the altar. 

216. Blue wreaths of smoke ascend through the trees, 
and betray the half hidden cottage : the eye contemplates 
well thatched ricks, and barns bursting with plenty : the 
peasant laughs at the approach of winter. 

217. The necessaries of life are few, and industry se- 
cures them to every man : it is the elegancies of life that 
empty the purse : the knick-knacks of fashion, the grati- 
fication of pride, and the indulgence of luxury, make a 
man poor. 

218. Your tree was as fruitful, and in as good order as 
his : it bore as many blossoms, and grew in the same soil : 
only it was not fostered with the same care. Edmund 
has kept his tree clear of hurtful insects : you have suf- 
fered them to eat up yours in its blossom. 

219. My dear children, I give you these trees : you see 
that they are in good condition. They will thrive as 
much by your care as they will decline by your negli- 
gence : their fruits will reward you in proportion to your 
labor. 

220. But Abraham pressed him greatly : so he turned, 
and they went into the tent : and Abraham baked unleav- 
ened bread, and they did eat. 

221. A bee among the flowers in spring is one of the 
most cheerful objects that can be looked upon. Its life 
appears to be all enjoyment : so busy and so pleased : yet 
it is only a specimen of insect life, with which by reason 
of the animal being half domesticated we happen to be 
better acquainted. 

222. 'Tis a picture in memory distinctly defined, with 
the strong and unperishing colors of mind : a part of my 
being beyond my control, beheld on that cloud, and tran- 
scribed on my soul. 

223. Bare trees and shrubs but ill you know could 
shelter them from rain or snow : stepping into their nests 
they paddled : themselves were chilled, their eggs were 
addled : soon every father bird and mother grew quarrel- 
some and pecked each other. 

224. Yet such is the destiny of all on earth : so flour- 
ishes and fades majestic man. 

3 



26 



PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



225. Let those deplore their doom whose hopes still 
grovel in this dark sojourn : but lofty souls who look be- 
yond the tomb, can smile at fate and wonder why they 
mourn. 

226. If for my faded brow thy hand prepare some fu- 
ture wreath, let me the gift resign : transfer the rosy gar- 
land : let it bloom around the temples of that friend be- 
loved, on whose maternal bosom, even now, I lay my 
aching head. 

227. We do not understand these things : we are told 
that your religion was given to your forefathers, and has 
been handed down from father to son. We also have a 
religion which was given to our forefathers, and has been 
handed down to us : it teaches us to be thankful for all 
favors received, to love each other, and to be united : we 
never quarrel about religion. 



LESSON XV. 

the colon, continued. 

In this Lesson the passages ending with a colon are to 
be read 7oith the voice suspended. (See Lesson 9th.) 

228. Do not natter yourselves with the hope of perfect 
happiness : there is no such thing in the world. 

229. He was often heard to say : I have done with the 
world; and I am willing to leave it. 

229. Be not a niggard of your speech : how goes it ? 

229. Those will be bad days to acquire and cultivate 
the spirit of devotion : But the spirit of devotion acquired 
and cultivated and confirmed before, will convert those 
bad days into good ones. 

230. But, when old age has on your temples shed her 
silver frost, there's no returning sun : swift flies our sum- 
mer, swift our autumn's fled, when youth and spring and 
golden joys are gone. 

231. A divine legislator uttering his voice from heaven; 
an almighty governor, stretching forth his arm to punish 
or reward ; informing us of perpetual rest prepared here- 
after for the righteous, and of indignation and wrath 



RHETORICAL READING. 27 

awaiting the wicked : these are the considerations which 
overawe the world, which support integrity, and check 
guilt. 

232. Not to the rosy maid, whom former hours beheld 
me fondly covet, tune I now the melancholy lyre : but 'tis 
to thee O sickness ! 'tis to thee I wake the silent 
strings. 

233. A boy at school is by no means at liberty to read 
what books he pleases : he must give attention to those 
which contain his lessons ; so that when he is called upon 
to recite, he may be ready, fluent and accurate in repeat- 
ing the portion assigned him. 

233. A poet is by no means at liberty to invent what 
system of the marvellous he pleases : he must avail him- 
self either of the religious faith, or the superstitious cre- 
dulity of the country wherein he lives; so as to give an air 
of probability to events which are most contrary to the 
common course of nature. 

234. It is not only in the school-room, that attention 
should be given to your books : there is a place, one not 
like a school-room ; I mean your own chamber : where you 
can find many opportunities of acquiring knowledge. 

234. It is not only in the sacred fane that homage 
should be paid to the Most High : there is a temple, one 
not made with hands ; the vaulted firmament : far in the 
woods, almost beyond the sound of city-chime, at intervals 
heard through the breezeless air. 

235. As we perceive the shadow to have moved along 
the dial, but did not perceive its moving ; and it appears 
that the grass has grown, though nobody ever saw it 
grow : so the advances we make in knowledge, as they 
consist of such minute steps, are perceivable only by the 
distance gone over. 

236. When the proud steed shall know why man re- 
strains his jiery course, or drives him o'er the plains; 
when the dull ox, why now he breaks the clod, is now a 
victim, and now Egypt's God : then shall man's pride and 
dullness comprehend his actions', passions', beings' use 
and end. 

237. Jehovah, God of Hosts, hath sworn, saying : sure-* 
ly as I have devised so shall it be ; and as I have purposed 
so shall it stand. 



28 



PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



238. That day he wore a riding coat, but not a whit 
the warmer he : another was on Thursday brought, and 
ere the Sabbath he had three. 

239. George, you must not laugh at me; I will not bear 
it. You forget what you are about when you ridicule me : 
I know more than you do about the lessons. 

239. Brutus, bay not me : I'll not endure it. You for- 
get yourself, to hedge me in : I am a soldier, older in 
practice, abler than yourself to make conditions. 

240. 1 never heard a word about it before, said George, 
yesterday : who told you about it, Charles? 

240. I never heard one word of it before, said my un- 
cle Toby, hastily : how came he there, Trim? 

241. Thou shalt pronounce this parable upon the 
King of Babylon ; and shalt say : How hath the oppressor 
ceased. 



LESSON XVI. 



THE PARENTHESIS, CROTCHETS, AND BRACKETS. 

A Parenthesis is a sentence, or part of a sentence en- 
closed between two curved lines like these ( ) 

The curved lines in whicJi the parenthesis is enclosed are 
called Crotchets. 

The parenthesis, with the crotchets which enclose it, is 
generally inserted between the words of another sentence; 
and may be omitted without injuring the sense. 

The parenthesis shoidd generally be read in a quicker 
and lower tone of voice than the other parts of the sen- 
tence in which it stands. 

Sometimes a sentence is enclosed in marks like these [ 
which are called Brackets.* 



* Although the Crotchet and the Bracket are sometimes indiscriminately 
used, the following difference in their use may generally be noticed : 
Crotchets are used to enclose a sentence, or part of a sentence, which is 
inserted between the parts of another sentence : Brackets are generally 
used to separate two subjects, or to enclose an explanation; note, or obser- 
vation, standing by itself. When a parenthesis occurs within another pa- 
renthesis, Brackets enclose the former, and Crotchets enclose the latter. 
See No. 263. 



RHETORICAL READING. 29 

Sentences which are included within Brackets, should 
generally be read like a parenthesis t in a quicker and lower 
tone of voice. 

Examples. 

242. I asked my eldest son (a boy who never was guilty 
of a falsehood) to give me a correct account of the matter. 

243. The master told me that the lesson (which was a 
very difficult one) was recited correctly by every pupil in 
the class. 

244. When they were both turned of forty (an age in 
which, according to McCowley, there is no dallying with 
life) they determined to retire, and pass the remainder of 
their days in the country. 

245. Notwithstanding all this care of Cicero, history 
informs us, that Marcus proved a mere blockhead ; and 
that nature (who, it seems, was even with the son for her 
prodigality to the father) rendered him incapable of im- 
proving, by all the rules of eloquence, the precepts of phi- 
losophy, his own endeavors, and the most refined conver- 
sation in Athens. 

246. Natural historians observe (for whilst I am in the 
country I must fetch my allusions from thence) that only 
the male birds have voices ; that their songs begin a little 
before breeding-time, and end a little after. 

247. Dr. Clark has observed, that Homer is more per- 
spicuous than any other author ; but if he is so (which 
yet may be questioned) the perspicuity arises from his 
subject, and not from the language itself in which he 
writes. 

248. The many letters which come to me from persons 
of the best sense of both sexes (for I may pronounce their 
characters from their way of writing) do not a little en- 
courage me in the prosecution of this my undertak- 
ing- 

249 It is this sense which furnishes the imagination 
with its ideas ; so that by the pleasures of the imagination, 
or fancy (which I shall use promiscuously) I here mean, 
such as arise from visible objects. 

250. The stomach (cramm'd from every dish, a tomb 
of boiled and roast, and flesh and fish, where bile, and 
wind, and phlegm, and acid jar, and all the man is 
*3 



30 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

one intestine war) remembers oft the school-boy's simple 
fare, the temperate sleeps, and spirits light as air. 

251. William Penn was distinguished from his com- 
panions by wearing a blue sash of silk network, (which it 
seems is still preserved by Mr. Kett of Seethinghall, near 
Norwich) and by having in his hand a roll of parchment, 
on which was engrossed the confirmation of the treaty of 
purchase and amity. 

252. Again, would your worship a moment suppose,, 
('tis a case that has happened and may be again) that the 
visage or countenance had not a nose y pray who would, 
or who could, wear spectacles then ? 

253. Upon this the dial-plate (if we may credit the fa- 
ble) changed 1 countenance with alarm. 

254. To speak of nothing else, the arrival of the Eng- 
lish in her father's dominions must have appeared (as in- 
deed it turned out to be) a most portentous phenome- 
non. 

255. Surely, in this age of invention something may be 
struck out to obviate the necessity (if such necessity 
exists) of so tasking the human intellect. 

256. I compassionate the unfortunates now (at this 
very moment, perhaps,) screwed up perpendicularly in the 
seat of torture, having in the right hand a fresh nibbed 
patent pen, dipped ever and anon into the ink bottle, as if 
to hook up ideas, and under the outspread palm of the left 
hand a fair sheet of best Bath post, (ready to receive 
thoughts yet unhatched,) on which their eyes are rivetted 
with a stare of disconsolate perplexity, infinitely touching 
to a feeling mind. 

257. Oh the unspeakable relief (could such a machine 
be invented) of having only to grind an answer to one of 
one's dear five hundred friends. 

. 258. Have I not groaned under similar horrors, from 
the hour when I was first shut up (under lock and key, I 
believe,) to indite a dutiful epistle to an honored aunt? 

259. To such unhappy persons, then, I would fain offer 
a few hints, (the fruit of long experience) which may 
prove serviceable in the hour of emergency. 

260. If ever you should come to Modena, (where among 
other relics you may see Tassoni's bucket) stop at a pal- 
ace near the Reggio gate t dwelt in of aid by one of the 
Donati. 



RHETORICAL READING. 32 

261. My father, and my uncle Toby (clever soul) were 
sitting by the fire with Dr. Slop; and Corporal Trim (a 
brave and honest fellow) was reading a sermon to them. 
As the sermon contains many parentheses, and affords 
an opportunity also of showing you a sentence in brackets, 
(you will observe that all the previous parentheses in this 
lesson are enclosed in crotchets) I shall insert some parts 
of it in the following numbers. [See No. 262, 263, &c] 

262. To have the fear of God before our eyes, and in 
our mutual dealings with each other, to govern our actions 
by the eternal measures of right and wrong : the first of 
these will comprehend the duties of religion ; the second 
those of morality, which are so inseparably connected to- 
gether, that you cannot divide these two tables, even in 
imagination (though the attempt is often made in prac- 
tice) without breaking and mutually destroying them 
both. [Here my father observed that Dr. Slop was fast 
asleep.] I said the attempt is often made; and so it is; 
there being nothing more common than to see a man 
who has no sense at all of religion, and, indeed, has so 
much honesty as to pretend to none, who would take it as 
the bitterest affront, should you but hint at a suspicion of 
his moral character, or imagine he was not conscientious- 
ly just and scrupulous to the uttermost mite. 

263. I know the banker I deal with, or the physician I 
usually call in [There is no need, cried Dr. Slop (waking) 
to call in any physician in this case,] to be neither of 
them men of much religion. 

264. For a general proof of this, examine the history 
of the Romish Church : [Well, what can you make of 
that? cried Dr. Slop,] see what scenes of cruelty, mur- 
der, rapine, bloodshed, [They may thank their own ob- 
stinacy, cried Dr. Slop] have all been sanctified by reli- 
gion not strictly governed by morality. 

265. Experienced schoolmasters may quickly make a 
grammar of boys' natures, and reduce them all (savino- 
some few exceptions) to certain general rules. 

266. Ingenious boys, who are idle, think, with the hare 
in the fable, that, running with snails, (so they count the 
rest of their school-fellows,) they shall come soon enough 
to the post ; though sleeping a good while before their 
starting. 



32 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



LESSON XVII. 

THE DASHv 

The Dash is a straight mark like this — 

The Dash is sometimes used to express a sudden stop r 
or change in the subject. 

Sometimes the Dash requires a pause no longer than a 
comma, and sometimes a longer pause than a period. 

The Dash is frequently used instead of Crotchets or 
Brackets, and a Parenthesis placed between two dashes. 
[See number 281.] 

The Dash is soinetimes used to precede something nnex~ 
pected, as when a sentence beginning seriously ends hu- 
morously. [See Numbers 311 to 318.] 

In the following sentences the Dash expresses a sudden 
stop, or change of the subject. 

Examples. 

267. If you will give me your attention I will show 
vou — but stop, I do not know that you wish to see. 

268. Alas ! that folly and falsehood should be so hard 
to grapple with — but he that hopes to make mankind the 
wiser for his labors, must not be soon tired. 

269. I stood to hear — I love it well — the rain's con- 
tinuous sound ; small drops, but thick and fast they fell, 
down straight into the ground. 

270. He set up the most piercing and dreadful cries 
that fear ever uttered — I may well term them dreadful, 
for they haunted my sleep for years afterwards. 

271. Each zone obeys thee — thou goest forth dread, 
fathomless, alone. 

272. Please your honors, quoth Trim, the inquisition is 

the vilest . Prithee spare thy description, Trim. I 

hate the very name of it, said my father. 

273. The fierce wolf prowls around thee — there he 
stands listening — not fearful, for he nothing fears. 



RHETORICAL READING. 33 

274. The wild stag hears thy falling waters' sound, 
and tremblingly flies forward — o'er his back he bends his 
stately horns — the noiseless ground his hurried feet im- 
press not — and his track is lost amidst the tumult of the 
breeze, and the leaves falling from the rustling trees. 

275. The wild horse thee approaches in his turn. His 
mane stands up erect — his nostrils burn — he snorts — > 
he pricks his ears — and starts aside. 

276. The music ceased, and Hamish Fraser, on com- 
ing back into the shealing (or shed,) said, I see two men 
on horseback coming up the glen — one is on a white 
horse. Ay — blessed be God, that is the good priest — 
now will I die in peace. My last earthly thoughts are 
gone by — he will show me the salvation of Christ — the 
road that leadeth to eternal life. 

277. There was silence — not a word was said — their 
meal was before them — God had been thanked, and they 
began to eat. 

277. They hear not — see not — know not — for their 
eyes are covered with thick mists — they will not see. 

278. The God of Gods stood up — stood up to try the 
assembled gods of earth. 

279. And ye like fading autumn leaves will fall ; your 
throne but dust — your empire but a grave — your martial 
pomp a black funereal pall — your palace trampled by 
your meanest slave. 

280. To-day is thine — improve to-day, nor trust to- 
morrow's distant ray. 

281. And thus, in silent waiting, stood the piles of stone 
and piles of wood ; till Death, who in his vast affairs, 
never puts things off — as men in theirs — and thus, if I 
the truth must tell, does his work finally and well — 
winked at our hero as he passed, — Your house is finished, 
Sir, at last ; a narrower house — a house of clay — your 
palace for another day. 

282. For some time the struggle was most amusing — 
the fish pulling, and the bird screaming with all its might 
— the one attempting to fly, and the other to swim from 
its invisible enemy — the gander at one moment losing 
and the next regaining his centre of gravity. 



34 



PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



The Dash is sometimes to be read as a period, with the 
falling inflection of the voice. 

283. The favored child of nature, who combines in her- 
self these united perfections, may justly be considered as 
the master-piece of creation — as the most perfect image 
of the Divinity here below. 

284. Now launch the boat upon the wave — the wind is 
blowing off the shore — I will not live a cowering slave, 
in these polluted islands more. 

285. The wind is blowing off the shore, and out to sea 
the streamers fly — my music is the dashing roar, my 
canopy the stainless sky — it bends above, so fair a blue, 
that heaven seems opening to my view. 

2S6. He had stopped soon after beginning the tale — 
he had laid the fragment away among his papers, and had 
never looked at it again. 

287. The exaltation of his soul left him — he sunk 
down — and his misery went over him like a flood. 

288. May their fate be a mock-word — may men of all 
lands laugh out with a scorn that shall ring to the 
poles. 

289. You speak like a boy — like a boy who thinks the 
old gnarled oak can be twisted as easily as the young 
sapling. 

290. I am vexed for the bairns — I am vexed when I 
think of Robert and Hamish living their father's life — 
But let us say no more of this. 

291. He hears a noise — he is all awake — again he 
hears a noise — on tiptoe down the hill he softly creeps — 
'Tis Goody Blake ! She is at the hedge of Harry Gill. 

292. Mr. PI ay fair was too indulgent, in truth, and fa- 
vorable to his friends — and made a kind of liberal allow- 
ance for the faults of all mankind — except only faults of 
baseness or of cruelty ; against which he never failed to 
manifest the most open scorn and detestation. 

293. Towards women he had the most chivalrous feel- 
ings of regard and attention, and was, beyond almost all 
men, acceptable and agreeable in their society — though 
without the least levity or pretension unbecoming his a,ge 
or condition, 



RHETORICAL READING. 35 



The Dash is sometimes to he read like a comma, with 
the voice suspended. [See Lesson 9th.] 

294. Vain men, whose brains are dizzy with ambition, 
bright your swords — your garments flowery, like a plain 
in the spring-time — if truth be your delight, and virtue 
your devotion, let your sword be bared alone at wisdom's 
sacred word. 

295. I have always felt that I could meet death with 
composure ; but 1 did not know, she said, with a tremu- 
lous voice, her lips quivering — I did not know how hard 
a thing it would be to leave my children, till now that the 
hour is come. 

296. The mountain — thy pall and thy prison — may 
keep thee. 

297. And Babylon shall become — she that was the 
beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chal- 
deans — as the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah by 
the hand of God. 

298. Our land — the first garden of liberty's tree — it 
has been and shall yet be the land of the free. 

299. Earth may hide — waves ingulph — -fire consume 
us, but they shall not to slavery doom us. 

300. They shall find that the name which they have 
dared to proscribe — that the name of Mac Gregor is a 
spell. 

301. You must think hardly of us — and it is not nat- 
ural that it should be otherwise. 

302. Delightful in his manners — inflexible in his prin- 
ciples — and generous in his affections, he had all that 
could charm in society, or attach in private. 

303. The joys of life in hurried exile go — till hope's 
fair smile, and beauty's ray of light, are shrouded in the 
griefs and storms of night. 

304. Day after day prepares the funeral shroud ; the 
world is gray with age: — the striking hour is but an 
echo of death's summons loud — the jarring of the dark 
grave's prison door. Into its deep abyss — devouring all 
— kings and the friends of kings alike must fall. 

305. No persuasion could induce little Flora to leave 
the shealing — and Hamish Fraser was left to sit with her 
all night beside the bed. 



36 



PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



306. One large star arose in heaven — and a wide 
white glimmer over a breaking mass of clouds told that 
the moon was struggling through, and in another hour, if 
the upper current of air flowed on, would be apparent. 

307. He was too weak, however, to talk — he could 
only look his thanks. 

308. She made an effort to put on something like 
mourning for her son ; and nothing could be more touch- 
ing than this struggle between pious affection and utter 
poverty: a black riband or so — a faded black handker- 
chief, and one or two more such humble attempts to ex- 
press by outward signs that grief that passeth show. 

309. One great clime, whose vigorous offspring by di- 
viding ocean are kept apart, and nursed in the devotion of 
freedom which their Fathers fought for and bequeathed 

— a heritage of heart and hand, and proud distinction 
from each other land, whose sons must bow them at a 
monarch's motion, as if his senseless sceptre were a wand 
full of the magic of exploded science — still one great 
clime, in full and free defiance, yet rears her crest, un« 
conquered and sublime, above the far Atlantic. 

The Dash sometimes precedes something unexpected ; as 
when a sentence beginning seriously ends humorously. 

310. Good people all, with one accord, lament for Mad- 
am Blaize ; who never wanted a good word — from those 
who spoke her praise. 

311. The needy seldom passed her door, and always 
found her kind ; she freely lent to all the poor — who left 
a pledge behind. 

312. She strove the neighborhood to please, with man- 
ner wondrous winning; and never followed wicked ways 

— except when she was sinning. 

313. At church, in silks and satin new, with hoop of 
monstrous size, she never slumbered in her pew — but 
when she shut her eyes. 

314. Her love was sought, I do aver, by twenty beaux, 
and more ; the king himself has followed her — when she 
has walked before. 

315. But now, her wealth and finery fled, her hangers- 
on cut short all ; her doctors found, when she was dead — 
her last disorder mortal. 



RHETORICAL READING 37 

316. Let us lament, in sorrow sore ; for Kent-street 
well may say, that, had she lived a twelve-month more — 
she had not died to-day. 

The Dash is sometimes used with ether pauses to length- 
en them. 

317. That God whom you see me daily worship, whom 
I daily call upon to bless both you and me and all man- 
kind ; whose wondrous acts are recorded in those Scrip- 
tures which you constantly read, — that God who created 
the heavens and the earth ; who appointed his Son Jesus 
Christ to redeem mankind : — this God, who has done all 
these great things, who has created so many millions of 
men, with whom the spirks of the good will live and be 
happy forever; — this great God, the Creator of worlds of 
angels, and of men, is your Father and Friend. 

318. It is not therefore, the use of the innocent amuse- 
ments of life which is dangerous, but the abuse of them ; 

— it is not when they are occasionally, but when they are 
constantly pursued ; when the love of amusement degen- 
erates into a passion, and when, from being an occasional 
indulgence, it becomes an habitual desire. 

319. In every pursuit whatever gives strength and en- 
ergy to the mind of man, experience teaches to be favor- 
able to the interests of piety, of knowledge, and of virtue; 

— in every pursuit, on the contrary, whatever enfeebles or 
limits the powers of the mind, the same experience ever 
shows to be hostile to the best interests of human nature, 

320. From the first hour of existence to the last, — 
from the cradle of the infant, beside which the mother 
watches with unslurnbering eye, to the grave of the aged, 
where the son pours his last tears upon the bier of his 
father, — in all that intermediate time, every day calls for 
exertion and activity, and the moral honors can only be 
won by the steadfast magnanimity of pious duty. 

321. They say they have bought it. — Bought it! 
Yes; — of whom? — Of the poor trembling natives who 
knew that refusal would be vain ; and who strove to make 
a merit of necessity, by seeming to yield with grace, what 
they knew they had not the power to retain. 

322. We gazed on the scenes, while around us they 
glowed, when a vision of beauty appeared on the cloud ; 

4 



38 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

it was not like the sun, as at mid-day we view, nor the 
moon, that rolls nightly through star-light and blue. 

323. It is not the lifeless mass of matter, he will then 
feel, that he is examining, — it is the mighty machine of 
Eternal Wisdom : the workmanship of Him, in whom ev- 
ery thing lives, and moves, and has its being. 

324. The expanding rose, just bursting into beauty, has 
an irresistible bewitchingness ; — the blooming bride led 
triumphantly to the hymeneal altar, awakens admiration 
and interest, and the blush of her cheek fills with delight; 

— but the charm of maternity is more sublime than all 
these. 

325. But Winter has yet brighter scenes ; — he boasts 
splendors beyond what gorgeous Summer knows, or Au- 
tumn, with his many fruits and woods, all flushed with 
many hues. 

326. When suffering the inconveniences of the ruder 
parts of the year, we may be tempted to wonder why this 
rotation is necessary ; — why we could not be constantly 
gratified with vernal bloom and fragrance, or summer 
beauty and profusion. 

327. I feared, — said the youth, with a tear in his eye, 

— I feared that the brute's voice, and the trampling of 
the horse's feet would have disturbed her. 

328. Then a spirit passed before my face ; the hair of 
my flesh stood up : Tt stood still, but I could not discern the 
form thereof: an image was before mine eyes: — There 
was silence, and I heard a voice — Shall mortal man be 
more just than God ? 

The Dash is sometimes to be read as a question. 

329. Is it not enough to see our friends die, and part 
with them for the remainder of our days — to reflect that 
we shall hear their voices no more, and that they will 
never look on us again — to see that turning to corrup- 
tion which was but just now alive, and eloquent, and 
beautiful, with all the sensations of the soul? 

330. He hears the ravens cry ; and shall he not hear, 
and will he not avenge, the wrongs that his nobler ani- 
mals suffer — wrongs that cry out against man from youth 
to age, in the city and in the field, by the way, and by 
the fireside ? 



RHETORICAL READING. 39 

331. Can we view their bloody edicts against us — 
their hanging, heading, hounding, and hunting down an 
ancient and honorable name — as deserving better treat- 
ment than that which enemies give to enemies'? 

332. Are these the pompous tidings ye proclaim, lights 
of the world, and demi-gods of fame 1 Is this your tri- 
umph — this your proud applause, children of Truth, and 
champions of her cause 1 

333. Still what are you but a robber — a base, dishon- 
est robber? [See Lesson 3c?, page 7th.] 

334. Was there ever a bolder captain of a more valiant 
band ? Was there ever — but I scorn to boast. 

335. And what if thou shalt fall unnoticed by the liv- 
ing — and no friend take note of thy departure 1 

336. Seest thou yon lonely cottage in the grove — with 
little garden neatly planned before — its roof deep -shaded 
by the elms above, moss-grown, and decked with velvet 
verdure o'er 1 

337. What shall we call them ! — Piles of chrystal 
light — a glorious company of golden streams — lamps of 
celestial ether burning bright — suns lighting systems 
with their joyous beams 1 [See Lesson 5th, page 8th.] 

338. Can you renounce a fortune so sublime — such 
glorious hopes — your backward steps to steer, and roll, 
with vilest brutes, through mud and slime ? No ! no ! 
your heaven-touched hearts disdain the sordid crime ! 

The Dash is sometimes to be read like an exclamation. 

339. Now for the fight — now for the cannon-peal — 
forward — through blood, and toil, and cloud, and fire! 

340. They shake — like broken waves their squares 
retire, — on them, hussars! Now give them rein and 
heel ; think of the orphaned child, the murdered sire : — 
earth cries for blood, — in thunder on them wheel ! This 
hour to Europe's fate shall set the triumph seal ! 

341. What dreadful pleasure ! there to stand sublime, 
like shipwrecked mariner on desert coast, and see the 
enormous waste of vapor, tossed in billows lengthening to 
the horizon round, now scooped in gulfs, with mountains 
now embossed — and hear the voice of mirth and song 
rebound, flocks, herds, and waterfalls, along the hoar pro- 
found ! 



40 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

342. The chain of being is complete in me ; in me is 
matter's last gradation lost, and the next step is spirit — 
Deity ! I can command the lightning, and am dust ! 

343. Sadly to Blount did Eustace say, Unworthy office 
here to stay ! no hope of gilded spurs to-day — but, see, 
look up — on Flodden bent, the Scottish foe has fired 
his tent, 

344. Good God ! that in such a proud moment of life, 
worth ages of history — when, had you but hurled one 
bolt at your bloody invader, that strife between freemen? 
and tyrants had spread through the world; that then — 
O, disgrace upon manhood ! e'en then you should falter — 
should cling to your pitiful breath, cower down into beasts, 
when you might have stood men ; and prefer a slave's life 
to a glorious death 1 

345. Beneath the very shadow of the fort, where 
friendly swords were drawn, and banners flew, ah! who. 
could deem that foot of Indian crew was near? — Yet 
there, with lust of murderous deeds, gleamed like a basi- 
lisk, from woods in view, the ambushed foeman's eye — 
His volley speeds, and Albert — Albert — falls 1 the dear 
old father bleeds 1 

346. Above me are the Alps, the palaces of Nature, 
whose vast walls have pinnacled in clouds their snowy 
scalps, and throned Eternity in icy halls of cold sublimity, 
where forms and falls the avalanche — the thunderbolt of 



snow 



347. Now, now, the secret I implore; out with it — 
speak — discover — utter ! 

348. Peace I I'd not go if staying here would strew 
his hoar hairs in the tomb — not stir, by heaven ! Must 
I toss counters 1 sum the odds of life, when honor points 
the way 1 — When was the blood of Douglas precious in- 
a noble cause 1 

349. How has expectation darkened into anxiety — - 
anxiety into dread — and dread into despair ! Alas! not 
one memento shall ever return for love to cherish. All 
that shall ever be known is, that she sailed from her port, 
and was never heard of more. 

350. A measure of corn would ha.rdly suffice me fine 
flour enough for a month's provision, and this arises ta 
above six score bushels; and many hogsheads of wine and 
other liquors have passed through this body of mine-~> 



RHETORICAL READING. 41 

this wretched strainer of meat and drink ! And what 
have I done all this time for God and man ? What a 
vast profusion of good things upon a useless life and a 
worthless liver ! 

351. Ay, cluster there, cling to your masters ; judges, 
Romans — slaves ! 



LESSON XVIII. 



THE HYPHEN. 

The Hyphen is a little mark like this - It resembles 
a dash, but is not so long. 

The Hyphen is used to separate the syllables of a word; 
or to make one word of two : as semi-circle, sea-water. 

When there is not room enough in the line for the whole 
of a word, some of its syllables are put into the line luith a 
Hyphen, and the remainder in the next line : as Extraor- 
dinary. 

When a Hyphen is placed over the letters a, e, i, o, u, 
or y, it shows that they have their long sound. 

[The pupil may tell for what purpose the Hyphen is 
used in the following words.] 

352. Extraneous, sea-water, semi-circle, demi-gods, 
Seething-hall, Moss-side, plane-trees, bed-side, Birk- 
knowe, over-canopied, toil-hardened, grey-haired, to-mor- 
row, Sabbath-day, Sardanapalus, ill-requited, thunder- 
cloud, European, Epicurean, pine-covered, clay-cold, snow- 
clad, parish-clerk, night-steed, moon-eyed, azure, all- 
wise, edict, fellow-creatures, Icy, well-founded, omega, fel- 
low-feeling, uniform, prophesy, earth-born, far-wandering, 
storm-clouds, hymeneal, chamber, either, fairy, lever, api- 
ary, culinary. 



* 4 



42 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

LESSON XIX. 

ELLIPSIS. 

Ellipsis means an emission of some word or words. 
Sometimes a sentence is unfinished, or some parts of it are 
purposely omitted ; and the mark which indicates an ellip- 
sis, is put in the place of that which is left out. 

An Ellipsis is sometimes indicated by a mark like this 
, which resembles a dash lengthened. 

Sometimes the Ellipsis is denoted by asterisks or stars 
tike these ****** 

Sometimes the Ellipsis is marked by small dots or peri- 
ods like these 

And sometimes the Ellipsis is indicated by hyphens like 
these 

The Ellipsis sometimes so closely resembles a dash that 
it is scarcely distinguishable from it. 

The voice is generally suspended at an Ellipsis; but 
the falling inflection is frequently used, when the Ellipsis 
follows a question, or exclamation. In so-me of the follow- 
ing sentences the Dash and Ellipsis are both used. 

Examples. 

353. Hast thou But how shall I ask a question 

which must bring tears into so many eyes? 

354. The air breathes invitation ; easy is the walk to 
the lake's margin, where a boat lies moored beneath her 
sheltering tree. — 

Forth we went, and down the valley, on the streamlet's 
bank, pursued our way, a broken company, mute or con- 
versing, single, or in pairs. 

355. Who is here so vile, that will not love his country? 
if any, speak ; for him have 1 offended, — I pause for a 
reply 

None ! then none have I offended. 

356. It is in vain to explain : — the time it would take 
to reveal to you 

Satisfy my curiosity in writing then. 



RHETORICAL READING. 43 

357. Indeed he is very ill, Sir, Can't help it. ■ 

We are very distressed, Can't help it. Our poor 

children, too Can't help that, neither. 

358. Now if he had married a woman with money, you 
know, why then 

The suppliant turned pale, and would have fainted. 

359. I have been, my dear S on an ex- 
cursion through the counties which lie along the eastern 
side of the Blue Ridge. 

360. You have my answer: * * * — let my actions 
speak. 

361. No, no, Dionysius ; remember that it was I alone 
who displeased thee : Damon could not 

362. If lie were all Remember haughty Henry, 

the nephew of his wife, whose word could speed a veteran 
army to his kinsman's aid. 

363. I would not wound thee, Douglas, well thou 
knowest ; but thus to hazard on a desperate cast thy 
golden fortunes 

364. For thy father's sake 

Peace ! I'd not go if staying here would strew his hoar 
hairs in the tomb not stir, by heaven! 

365. Nay, hear me, hear me, Douglas 

— Talk to me of dangers? Death and shame! is not 
my race as high, as ancient and as proud as thine 1 

366. Still must I wonder ; for so dark a cloud 

Oh deeper than thou think'st I've read thy heart. 

367. Your grace will pardon me for obeying 



Say no more, my child, you are yet too raw to make 
proper distinctions. 

368. Let them or suppose I address myself to 

some particular sufferer — there is something more confi- 
dential in that manner of communicating one's ideas — as 
Moore says, Heart speaks to heart — I say, then, take es- 
pecial care to write by candle-light. 

369. To such unhappy persons, in whose miseries I 

deeply sympathize Have I not groaned under 

similar horrors 1 

370. That spares manual labor — this would relieve 
from mental drudgery, and thousands yet unborn - - - - 
But hold ! I am not so sure that the female sex in gen- 
eral may quite enter into my views on the subject. 



44 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

371. I am glad to see you well : Horatio or I do 

forget myself. 

372. Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven, or 
ever I had seen that day, Horatio ! 

My father methinks I see my father. 



LESSON XX. 

APOSTROPHE, QUOTATION, AND DI.ERESIS. 

An Apostrophe is a mark which differs from a comma 
only in being placed above the line ; thus ' 

The Apostrophe shows that some letter or letters are left 
out, as 'Tis for It is, tho' for though, lov'd for loved. 

The Apostrophe is likeivise used in Grammar to point 
out the possessive case ; as John's book. 

A Quotation consists of four commas or apostrophes ; 
two placed at the beginning and tico at the end of a word, 
sentence, or part of a sentence. The two which are placed 
at the beginning are inverted, or upside down. 

A Quotation shows that the word or sentence was spoken 
by some one, or was taken from some other author. 

A Diaresis consists of two periods placed over a vowel; 
thus, a. 

The Diceresis shows that the letter over which it is 
placed is to be pronounced separately ; as Creator, Zoono- 
mia, aerial. 

[In this Lesson the pupil is to recognize each of the 
above mentioned marks, and explain their use.] 

Examples, 

373. The fox-howl's heard on the fell (or hill) afar. 

374. The kindling fires o'er heaven so bright, look 
sweetly out from yon azure sea. 

375. Banished from Rome! what's banished, but set 
free from daily contact of the things 1 loathe 1 " Tried 
and convicted traitor " — Who says this 1 Who'll prove 



RHETORICAL READING, 45 

it, at his peril, on my head? "Banished?" — I thank 
you for't. It breaks my chain ! I held some slack alle- 
giance till this hour — but now my sword's my own. 

376. Your Consul's merciful. For this all thanks. 
He dares not touch a hair of Cataline. " Traitor ! " I 

go but I return. This trial! Here I devote 

your Senate ! I've had wrongs, to stir a fever in the 
blood of age. ***** This day is the birth of sor- 
rows. 

377. The eye could at once command a long-stretching 
vista, seemingly closed and shut up at both extremities by 
the coalescing cliffs. 

378. It seemed like Laocoon struggling ineffectually 
in the hideous coils of the monster Python. 

379. In those mournful months, when vegetables and 
animals are alike coerced by cold, man is tributary to the 
howling storm, and the sullen sky ; and is, in the pathetic 
phrase of Johnson, a " slave to gloom." 

380. I would call upon all the true sons of humanity to 
cooperate with the laws of man and the justice of heaven 
in abolishing this " cursed traffic." 

381. Come, faith, and people these deserts ! Come 
and reanimate these regions of forgetfulness. 

382. I am a professed lucubrator, and who so well qual- 
ified to delineate the sable hours, as 

" A meagre, muse-rid mope, adust and thin." 

383. He forsook, therefore, the bustling tents of his 
father, the pleasant " South country" and " well of La- 
hairoi ;" he went out and pensively meditated at the even- 
tide. 

384. The Grecian and Roman philosophers firmly 
believed that " the dead of midnight is the noon of 
thought." 

385. Young observes, with energy, that " an undevout 
astronomer is mad." 

386. Young Blount his armor did unlace, and, gazing 
on his ghastly face, said — " By Saint George, he's gone I 
that spear-wound has our master sped ; and see the deep 
cut on his head ! Good night to Marmion !" — " Unnur- 
tured Blount ! thy brawling cease : he opes his eyes/* 
gaid Eustace, " peace I " — « 



46 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

387. The first sentence, with which he broke the awful 
silence, was a quotation from Rousseau : " Socrates died 
like a philosopher, but Jesus Christ like a God !" 

388. A celebrated modern writer says, " Take care of 
the minutes, and the hours will take care of themselves." 
This is an admirable remark, and might be very seasona- 
bly recollected when we begin to be " weary in well 
doing," from the thought of having much to do. 

389. I've seen the moon gild the mountain's* brow ; 
I've watched the mist o'er the river stealing ; but ne'er 
did I feel in my breast till now, so deep, so calm, and so 
holy a feeling: 'Tis soft as the thrill which memory 
throws athwart the soul in the hour of repose. 

390. Blest be the day I 'scaped the wrangling crew 
from Pyrrho's* maze and Epicurus'* sty ; and held high 
converse with the godlike few, who to th' enraptured 
heart, and ear, and eye, teach beauty, virtue, truth, and 
love, and melody. 

391. But thou, who Heaven's* just vengeance dar'st 
defy, this deed, with fruitless tears, shalt soon deplore. 

392. O Winter ! ruler of the inverted year ! thy scat- 
ter'd hair with sleet-like ashes fill'd, thy breath congeal'd 
upon thy lips, thy cheeks fring'd with a beard made white 
with other snows than those of age, thy forehead wrapt in 
clouds, a leafless branch thy sceptre, and thy throne a 
sliding car, indebted to no wheels, but urg'd by storms along 
its slipp'ry way, I love thee, all unlovely as thou seem'st, 
and dreaded as thou art ! 

393. For, as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I 
found an altar with this inscription, " To the unknown 
God," Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him de- 
clare I unto you. 



The Apostrophe in these words is the sign of the possessive case. 



RHETORICAL READING. 47 



LESSON XXI, 

THE ASTERISK, OBELISK, DOUBLE OBELISK, SECTION, 

PARALLELS, PARAGRAPH, INDEX, CARET, BREVE, 

AND BRACE, 

The pupil will take 'particular notice of the following 
marks, so that he may call them by name, and explain their 
use in the following lesson. 



This mark 


* 


is called an Asterisk, or Star 


This mark 


t 


is called an Obelisk. 


This mark 


X 


is called a Double Obelisk. 


This mark 


IT 


is called a Paragraph, 


This mark 


§ 


is called a Section. 


These marks 


II 


are called Parallels. 



The Asterisk, Obelisk, Double Obelisk, Paragraph, 
Section, Parallel, and sometimes figures, or letters, are 
used to show that there is a note at the bottom of the page. 
When many notes occur on a page, these marks are some' 
times doubled, [See next page.] 

The Paragraph |f is used to show the beginning of a 
new subject. 

The Section § m also used to divide chapters into 
less parts. 

The Index or Hand ftj?" points to something which 
requires particular attention. 

The Breve *-? is placed over a letter to show that it has 
a short sound; as Helena. 

The Brace > is used to unite several lines of poetry, 
or to connect a number of words with one common term. 

The Caret / v is never used in printed books ; but in 
writing it shows that something has accidentally been left 

recited 

out ; as George has his lesson. 



O'When several Asterisks or Stars are placed together, they 
represent an Ellipsis. [See Lesson 19th.] 



48 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



Examples. 

394. Many persons pronounce the word Helena,* in- 
correctly. They call it Helena. 

395. The leprosy, therefore, of Naaman shall cleave 
unto thee. * * * * And he went out from his presence 
a leper as white as snow. 

396. The Cougart is the largest animal of the cat 
kind, found in North America; and has occasionally re- 
ceived the name of the American lion, from the similarity 
of its proportions and color to those of the lion of the old 
world. 

397. The keeper of the elephant gave him a gallon of 
arrack! which rendered the animal very furious. 

398. I fell upon my knees on the bank, with my two 
servants, and the drogoman§ of the monastery. 

399. The history of Joseph is exceedingly interesting 
and instructive. || 

400. It was a cave, a huge recess, that keeps, till June, 
December's snow ; a lofty precipice in front, a silent 
tarnff below. 

401. C-e-o-u-s, 1 

C-i-o-u-s, ! .-,.,. ' , . 

' < are pronounced like shus. 

S-c-i-o-u-s, } l 

T-i-o-u-s, J 

402. See where the rector's** splendid mansion stands, 
embosomed deep in new enclosed lands, — lands wrested 
from the indigent and poor, because forsooth he holds the 
village cure. ft 

403. When the young blood danced jocund through his 
veins, 'tis said his sacred stoleJJ received some stains. 

404. Their wants are promised Bridewell,|||| or the 
stocks. 

*This is the name of a small island situated on the west of Africa. 

f Pronounced Coo'-gar. The name given to this animal, by the country 
people, generally, is painter, evidently a corruption of panther. 

\ Arrack is a very strong spirituous liquor. 

§ Drogoman means an interpreter. 

|| The whole history of Joseph will be found in the Bible 3 from the 37th 
chapter to the end of the book of Genesis. 

U Tarn is a small lake, high up in the mountains. 

*"* A clergyman. ft Cure, — The office of a clergyman. 

jJStole. — A long robe worn by the clergy of England. 

|| Bridewell, — A house of correction. 



RHETORICAL READING. 49 



LESSON XXII. 



ACCENT. 



Accent is the peculiar tone or force given to some letter 
or syllable of a word. 

There are three accents, the Acute, the Grave, and the 
Circumflex. 

The A cute accent is noted by a mark like this ' placed 
over a letter or syllable, as in the word Epicurean. 

The Grave accent is represented by a mark like this v 
placed over a letter or syllable, as in the word Clessammor. 

The Circumflex accent is distinguished by a mark like 
this " placed over a letter or syllable. 

The letter or syllable over which either of the accents is 
placed, is to be pronounced more forcibly than the other 
parts of the same word, as Rec'c-gnize, Reuthamir, 
Fingal. 

The word or syllable over which the acute accent is 
placed, must be pronounced ivith the rising inflection of the 
voice: as Rec'ognize, Epicure'an, Acceptable. 

The word or syllable over which the grave accent is 
placed must be pronounced with the falling inflection of 
the voice, as Reuthamir, Clessammor. 

The word or syllable over which the Circumflex accent 
is placed, must be pronounced partly with the rising and 
partly with the falling inflection of the voice. If it begin 
with the rising and end with the falling, it is called the 
falling circumflex ; but if it begin with the falling and 
end with the rising, it is called the rising circumflex. 

The Circumflex accent is sometimes used to express the 
broad sound of a letter, as in Fingal, in which the a is 
pronounced as in the word Fall. 

In every word of more than one syllable there is one 
(and sometimes more than one) which must be pronounced 
more forcibly than the others ; and the acute accent is 
often used to show which this syllable is. The syllable 
thus pronounced is called the acented syllable, as Capillary, 
red'olent, ax'iom. 
5 



50 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

The acute, grave, and circumflex accents, are sometimes 
used to direct the management of the voice in reading sen~ 
tences; the acute accent indicating the rising, the grave 
the falling inflection of the voice, and the circumflex both 
the rising and falling united. When the circumflex is 
used to indicate a sound commencing with the rising and 
ending with the falling inflection, it is printed thus, A ; 
but when the sound commences with the falling and ends 
with the rising inflection, it is printed thus, v , which the 
yupil will perceive is the same mark inverted. 

[The pupil may now read the following sentences, re- 
collecting to manage his voice when he meets the respect- 
ive marks of accent, as directed above.] 

405. Did they recite correctly, or incorrectly ? 

406. They recited correctly, not incorrectly. 

407. Did they speak properly, or improperly 1 

408. They spoke properly, not improperly. 

409. Did Charles go willingly, or unwillingly 1 

410. Charles went willingly, not unwillingly. 
4L1. Did you say Epicurean, or P^picurean 1 

412. I said Epicurean, not Epicurean. I know bet- 
ter than to say so. 

413. You must not say acceptable, but acceptable. 

414. You must not pronounce that word recognise, but 
recognize. 

415. We must act according to the law, not contrary 
to it. 

416. Did he say wisdom, or wisdom ? 

417. He said wisdom, not wisdom. 

418. What must the King do now ? Must he submit? 
The King shall do it: must he be deposed 1 
The King shall be contented : must he lose 
The name of King ? — let it go ! 

419. I'll give my jewels, for a set of beads; 
My gorgeous palace, for a hermitage ; 
My gay apparel, for an almsman's gown; 
My figured goblets, for a dish of wood ; 
My sceptre, for a painter's walking staff; 
My subjects, for a pair of carved saints : 
And my large kingdom, for a little grave ; 
A little, little grave — an obscure grave. 



RHETORICAL READING. 51 

420. Art thou poor? Show thyself active and indus- 
trious, peaceable and contented . Art thou wealthy ? 
Show thyself beneficent and charitable, condescending 
and humane. 

421. This corruptible must put on incorruption, and 
this mortal must put on immortality. 

422. Religion raises men above themselves ; irreligion 
sinks them beneath the brutes. 

423. And if you do, you will but make it blush, and 
glow with shame of your proceedings, Hubert. 

424. Hamlet, you have your father much offended. 

425. Madam, you have my father much offended. 

426. If you said so, then I said so. 

427. No, say you; did he say No? He did; he said 
No. 

428. Is the goodness, or the wisdom of the divine 
Being, more manifest in this his proceeding ? 

429. Shall we in your person crown the author of the 
public calamities, or shall we destroy him ? 

430. From whence can he produce such cogent exhor- 
tations to the practice of every virtue, such ardent excite- 
ment to piety and devotion, and such assistance to attain' 
them, as those which are to be met with throughout every 
page of these inimitable writings? 

431. Where, amidst the dark clouds of Pagan philoso- 
phy, can he show us such a clear prospect of a future 
state, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the 
dead, and the general judgment, as in St. Paul's first 
epistle to the Corinthians ? 

432. Would it not employ a beau prettily enough, if, 
instead of eternally playing with his snuff-box, he spent 
some time in making one? 

433. Would an infinitely wise Being make such glori- 
ous beings for so mean a purpose ? Can he delight in 
the production of such abortive intelligences, such 
short-lived reasonable beings ? Would he give us talents 
that are not to be exerted, capacities that are not to be 
gratified ? 

434. Whither shall I turn ? Wretch that lam! to 
what place shall I betake myself? Shall I go to the cap- 
itol ? Alas! it is overflowed with my brother's blood! 
Or shall 1 retire to my house ? Yet there I behold my 
mother plunged in misery, weeping and despairing ! 



52 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

435. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets 1 I 
know that thou believest. 

4o6. Art thou he that should come, or shall we look 
for another ? 

437. The baptism of John, was it from heaven, — or of 
men ? 

438. Will you go — or stay? Will you ride, — or 
walk ? Will you go to-day, — or to-morrow ? 

439. Did you see him, — or his brother? Did he 
travel for health. — or pleasure? 

440. Did he resemble his father — or his mother? Is 
this book yours — or mine? 

441. Was it ar'med, say you? 'Armed, my lord. From 
top to toe ? My lord, from head to foot. 

442. Then saw you not his face ? Oh yes, my lord, 
he wore his beaver up. 

443. I did not say a better soldier, but an elder. 

444. Aim not to show knowledge, but to acquire it. 

445. Did I say go, — or go? 

446. Hence! — home, you idle creatures, get you 
home. You blocks, you stones ! you worse than sense- 
less things ! 

447. Get thee behind me, Satan. No. You did not 
read that right. You should say, Get thee behind me, 
Satan. 

448. N Angels and ministers of grace, defend us. 

449. Jesus, Master ! have mercy on us. 

450. Charity surTereth long, and is kind ; charity envf- 
eth not ; charity vaunteth not itself ; is not puffed up; 
doth not behave itself unseemly • seeketh not her own ; 
is not easily provoked ; thinketh no evil. 

451. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and un- 
derstand all mysteries, and all knowledge ; and though I 
have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and 
have not charity, I am nothing. 

452. I tell you, though you, though all the world, 
though an angel from heaven should declare the truth of 
it, I could not believe it. 

453. I tell you, though you, though all the world, 
though an angel from heaven should declare the truth of 
it, I could not believe it. 

454. You wrong me every way, you wrong me, 
Brutus. 



RHETORICAL READING. 53 

455. You wrong me every way, you wrong me, 
Brutus, 

456. Are you going to Boston? What did you ask 
me ? Are you going to Boston 1 

457. They tell us to be moderate ; but they, they are to 
revel in profusion. 

458. I see thou hast learned to rail. 

459. 1 know that thou art a scoundrel. 

460. Such trifling would not be admitted in the inter- 
course of men, and do you think it will avail more with 
Almighty God? 



LESSON XXIII. 



emphasis. 

By Emphasis is meant the force or loudness of voice by 
which we distinguish the principal word or words in a sen- 
tence. 

To emph^tze a word means to pronounce it in a loud 
or fordid manner. 

The meaning of a sentence, especially if be a question 
often depends upon the proper placing of the emphasis. 
Thus : in the sentence, Shall you ride to town to-day ? if 
the emphasis be placed upon ride, the question will be, 
Shall you RIDE to town to-day? — and it may be answered, 
No, I shall not ride, I shall walk. If the emphasis be 
placed upon you, the question then becomes, Shall YOU 
ride to town to-day? and the answer may be, No, I shall 
not go myself, I shall send my son. If the emphasis be 
placed on town, the question then becomes, Shall you ride 
to TOWN to day ? and the answer may be, No, I shall not 
ride to town, but I shall ride into the country. If the 
emphasis be placed upon day, the question then becomes, 
Shall you ride to town TO-DAY ? and the answer may be, 
No, I shall not go to-day, but I shall to-morrow. 

In reading the following sentences, the pupil will em- 
phasize the words in capital letters. 

*5 



54 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

461. You were paid to FIGHT against Alexander, not 
to RAIL at him. 

462. And Saul said unto Michael, why hast thou 
DECEIVED me so ? 

463. Then said the High Priest are these things SO ? 

464. Exercise and temperance strengthen even an 
INDIFFERENT constitution. 

465. AGAIN to the battle Achaians. 

466. I that denied thee GOLD, will give my HEART. 

467. You wronged YOURSELF to write in such a case. 

468. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our STARS ; but 
in OURSELVES, that we are underlings. 

469. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy 
brother's eye, but considerest not the BEAM that is in thy 
OWN eye 1 

470. And Nathan said unto David, THOU art the man. 

471. A day, an HOUR of virtuous liberty, is worth a 
whole eternity of bondage. 

472. I'm tortured even to madness when I THINK of 
the proud victor. 

473. "Pis all a libel, PAXTON, Sir, will say :— 

Not yet, my friend ! TOMORROW, faith, it may ; 
And for that very cause I print TO-DAY. 

474. The men whom nature's works can charm, with 
GOD HIMSELF hold converse ; grow familiar d'ay by 
day with his conceptions, ACT upon his plan, and form to 
HIS the relish of their souls. 

475. It is equally unjust in thee to put DAMON or 
ME to death : but PYTHIAS were unjust, did he let 
Damon suffer a death that the tyrant prepared only for 
PYTHIAS. 

476. What ! does life DISPLEASE thee ? 

Yes; it displeases me when I see a TYRANT. 

477. HETRAYEST thou the Son of man with a kiss. 

478. Betrayest THOU the Son of man with a kiss. 

479. Betrayest thou the SON of man with a kiss. 

480. Betrayest thou the Son of MAN with a kiss. 

481. Betrayest thou the Son of man with a KISS. 

482. The firmest works of MAN, too, are gradually 
giving way. 

483. And THOU must sail upon this sea, a long event- 
ful voyage. The wise MAY suffer wreck — the foolish 
MUST. 



RHETORICAL READING. 55 

484. My ear is PAINED, my soul is SICK, with 
every day's report of wrong and outrage, with which 
earth is FILLED. There is no FLESH in man's obdu- 
rate heart, — it does not FEEL for man. 

485. Slaves cannot BREATHE in England ; if their 
lungs receive our air, that moment they are FREE. 



LESSON XXIV. 



PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EMPHASIS. 

In sentences where several words are to he emphasized, 
some words receive a stronger emphasis than others. This 
leads to a distinction, called primary and secondary em- 
phasis. The primary emphasis is the strongest emphasis. 
The secondary emphasis is the weaker emphasis ; of 
which, there are several degrees. 

In the following sentences, the words in LARGE 
CAPITALS are to receive the primary emphasis. Those 
ih small capitals, or Italic, are to receive the secondary 
emphasis. 

486. What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted! 
THRICE is he armed that hath his quarrel just : and 
he but naked though locked up in STEEL, whose con- 
science with injustice is corrupted. 

487. But winter has yet brighter scenes ; — he boasts 
splendors beyond what gorgeous summer knows, — or 
autumn with her many fruits and woods all flushed with 
many hues. 

488. Boisterous in speech, in action prompt and bold, 
He buys, he sells, — he steals, he KILLS for gold. 
48S. The combat deepens. ON, ye brave, who rush to 

glory or the grave ! Wave, Munich, all thy banners 
wave, and charge with all thy chivalry. 

4S9. Oh fear not thou to die ! But rather fear to 
LIVE ; for life has thousand snares thy feet to try, by 
peril, pain, and strife. 



56 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

490. Yea! long as Nature's humblest child hath kept 
her temple undefined by sinful sacrifice, Earth's fairest 
scenes are all his own ; he is a MONARCH, and his 
throne is built amid the skies. 

491. Misses! the tale that I relate this lesson seems 
to carry — Choose not alone a proper mate, but proper 
time to marry. 

492. Son of night, retire ; call thy winds and fly : 
Why dost thou come to my presence with thy shadowy 
arms 1 Do I FEAR thy gloomy form, dismal spirit of 
Loda? Weak is thy shield of clouds; feeble is that 
meteor thy sword. 

493. My dwelling is calm, above the clouds; the fields 
of my rest are pleasant. 

DWELL then in thy calm field, and let Comhal's son 
be forgot. Do my steps ascend, from my hills into thy 
peaceful plains? Do / meet thee, with a spear, in thy 
cloud, spirit of dismal Loda? Why then dost thou frown 
on Fingal ? — or shake thine airy spear? But thou 
frownest in vain ; I never fled from mighty men. And 
shall the sons of the WIND frighten the King of Mor- 
ven? NO; he knows the weakness of their arms. 

494. Yonder schoolboy, who plays the truant, says, the 
proclamation of peace was NOTHING to the show ; and 
even the chairing of the members at election, would not 
have been a finer sight than this ; only that red and green 
are prettier colours than all this morning. 

495. The text is gospel wisdom. I would ride the 
camel, — yea LEAP him FLYING, through the needle's 
eye, as easily as such a pampered soul could pass the 
narrow gate. 

496. Why judge you then so hardly of the dead ? 
For what he left UNDONE : — for sins, not one of which 
is mentioned in the ten commandments. 

497. Though you may think of a million strokes in a 
minute, you are required to execute but one. 

49S. Not thirty tyrants now enforce the chain, but 
every CARLE can lord it o'er thy land. 

499. HEREDITARY bondmen! Know ye not,— 
who would be free THEMSELVES must strike the blow? 
By THEIR right arm the conquest must be wrought : — 
Will Gaul or Muscovite redress ye ? — N~ ! True they 



RHETORICAL READING. 57 

may lay your proud despoilers low; but not for YOU will 
freedom's altars flame. 

500. A thousand YEARS scarce serve to form a 
state ; an HOUR may lay it in the dust. 

501. He prayed but for life — for life he would give 
all he had in the world ; — it was but LIFE he asked — 
LIFE, if it were to be prolonged under tortures and pri- 
vations ; — he asked only breath, though it should be 
drawn in the damps of the lowest caverus of their 
hills. 

502. I could have bid you LIVE, had life been to you 
the same weary and wasting burden that it is to me. 

503. Be the combat our OWN \ and we'll perish or 
conquer MORE PROUDLY alone • for we have sworn 
by our country's assaulters, that living we WILL be vic- 
torious, or that dying our deaths shall be GLORI- 
OUS. 

504. Earth may hide — -waves ingulph — FIRE con- 
sume us, but they SHALL not to slavery doom us. 

505. If they rule, it shall be o'er our ashes and graves i 
but we have smitten them already with fire on the 
waves, and new triumphs on land are before us. To 
the CHARGE ! — Heaven's banner is o'er us. 

506. False Wizard AVAUNT ! I have marshalled 
my clan : their swords are a thousand, their bosoms are 
one. 

507. What means this shouting? I do fear, the peo- 
ple choose Caesar for their King. 

Ay, do you FEAR it ? Then must I think you would 
not have it so. 

508. I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke; but 
here I am to speak what I do KNOW. 

509. But yesterday, the word of Caesar might have 
stood against the WORLD. Now lies he there, and none 
so poor to do him reverence. 

510. He was my friend ; faithful and just to me : but 
Brutus says he was AMBITIOUS ; and Brutus is an 
honourable man. He hath brought many captives home 
to Rome, whose ransoms did the general coffers fill : 
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? When that the 
poor have cried, Caesar hath wept. Ambition should 
be made of sterner stuff. Yet Brutus says he WAS 
ambitious ; and Brutus is an honorable man.. You ail did 



1 



58 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

see, that, on the Lupercal, I thrice presented him a 
kingly crown: which he did thrice refuse. Was this 
ambition ? Yet Brutus SAYS he was ambitious ; and 
sure he is an honorable man. 



LESSON XXV. 



DISTINCTNESS OF ARTICULATION. 

In order to exercise the voice, and acquire distinctness of articula- 
tion, the pupil is required in this lesson, to pronounce (as well as he can) 
certain letters, which do not constitute a word, and then the words in 
which the same letters occur. It is not designed that he should call the 
letters by name, but endeavor to pronounce the sound which they rep- 
resent when united. 

Sound the following letters and then the words which 
follow, in which the same letters occur. Be particularly 
careful to give a clear and distinct sound to every letter. 

Aw. Law, saw, draw. 

Or. For, nor. 

Bd. Orbed, probed. 

Bdst. Robb'dst, prob'dst. 

Bl. Able, table, cable, abominable. 

Bid. Troubl'd. humbl'd, tumbl'd. 

Bldst. Troubl'dst, crumbl'dst, tumbl'dst. 

Biz. Troubles, crumbles, tumbles. 

Blsl. Troubl'st, crumbl'st, tumbl'st. 

Br, Brand, strand, grand. 

Bs. Ribs, cribs, fibs, nibs. 

Dl. Candle, handle, bridle, saddle. 

Did. Handl'd, bridl'd, saddl'd. 

Dlz. Candles, handles, bridles, saddles. 

Dlst. Fondl'st, handl'st, bridl'st. 

Dr. Drove, draw, drink, drive. 

Dz. Deeds, reeds, feeds, seeds. 

Dth. Breadth, width. 

Dths. Breadths, widths. 

Fl. Flame, fling, flounce, fly, flew, 

Fid, Trifl'd, stifl'd, rifl'd. 



RHETORICAL READING. 59 

Fist. Trifl'st, stifl'st, rifl'st. 

Flz. Trifles, rifles, stifles, ruffles. 

Fr. Frame, France, frown, front. 

Fs. Laughs, quaffs, staffs, raffs, muffs. 

Fst. Laugh'st, quaffst. 

Ft. Waft, raft, graft. 

Fts. Wafts, grafts, rafts. 

Ftst. Waft'st, graft'st. 

Gd. Bragg'd, begg'd, pegg'd. 

Gdst. Bragg'dst, begg'dst, pegg'dst. 

Gl. Glow, glance, glide, gluck, glad. 

Gld. HaggI'd, struggl'd, mangl'd, strangl'd. 

Gldst. Haggl'dst, struggl'dst, mangl'dst, strangl'st. 

Glz. Mangles, strangles, struggles. 

Gist. Mangl'st, strangl'st, struggl'st. 

Gr. Grave, grand, grow, grind, ground. 

Gz. Pigs, figs, begs, pegs, cags, nags. 

Gst. Bragg'st, begg'st. 

Jd. Hedged, fledged, wedged, caged. 

Kl. Uncle, carbuncle, ankle, crankle, rinkle. 

Kid. Rankl'd, tinkl'd, knuckl'd, truckl'd. 

Klz. Truckles, ankles, rinkles, uncles. 

Klst. Truckl'st, rinkl'st, buckl'st. 

l£/c?s£. TruckFdst, rinkl'dst, bukl'dst. 

Kn. Blacken, broken, spoken. 

Knd. Blacken'd, reckon'd, beckon'd. . 

Knz. Blackens, reckons, beckons. 

Knst. Black'nst, reck'nst, beck'nst. 

Kndst. Black'ndst, reck'ndst, beck'ndst. 

Kr. Croney, crumble, crank, crankle. 

Ks. Thinks, brinks, sinks, thanks. 

Kst. Think'st, sink'st, thank'st. 

Ct. Sack'd, thwack'd, crack'd, smack'd. 

Lb. Elb, bulb. 

Lbd. Bulb'd. 

Lbz. Elbs, bulbs. 

Ld. Hold, told, fold, sold, scold, rolPd. 

JLdz. Holds, folds, scolds. 

Ldst. Hold'st, fold'st, rolld'st, scold'st. 

Lf. Elf, self, shelf. 

Lfs. Elfs. 

Lft. Delft. 



60 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

Lj. Bulge, bilge. 

Lk. Milk, silk, elk. 

Lkt. Milk'd. 

Lks. Milks, silks, Elks. 

Lkts. Mulcts. 

Lm. Elm, whelm, film. 

Lmd. Whelm'd, film'd. 

Lmz. Whelms, films. 

Ln. Fall'n, stol'n, swoll'n. 

Lp. Help, scalp, whelp. 

Lps. Helps, scalps, whelps. 

Lpst. Help'st, scalp'st. 

Ls. False, pulse. 

Lst. Fall'nst. 

Lt. Felt, halt, salt, malt, colt, dolt. 

Lts. Halts, colts, dolts, faults. 

Lv. Shelve, delve, helve. 

Lvd. Shelv'd, delv'd. 

Lvz. Elves, shelves, delves. 

Lz. Balls, stalls, halls, falls, shells. 

Lsh. Filch, milch, felch. 

Lsht. Filched. 

Lth. Health, wealth, stealth. 

Lths. Healths, wealths, stealths. 

Md. Entomb'd, doom'd, room'd. 

Mf. Humphrey. 

Mt. Attempt. 

Mts. Attempts. 

Mz. Tombs, catacombs, combs. 

Mst. Entomb'st, comb'st. 

Nd. And, brand, sand, hand, land. 

Ndz. Bands, sands, hands, lands. 

Ndst. Send'st, defend'st, lend'st, brand'st. 

Nj. Range, strange, mange_, grange. 

Njd. Ranged, flanged. 

Nk. Rank, think, crank, prank, sank. 

Nks. Ranks, thinks, cranks, pranks. 

Nkst. Rank'st, tlrank'st, think'st, sank'st. 

Nt. Sent, rent, went, bent, lent, trent. 

Ntst. Want'st, went'st, sent'st, lent'st. 

Ntz. Wants, rents, scents. 

JVz. Fins, bans, scans, mans, fans. 



RHETORICAL READING. 61 



Nsh. Flinch, linch, pinch, bench. 

Nsht. Flinch'd, pinch'd, bench'd, drench'd. 

Nst. Winced. 

Ngd. Hanged, banged, prolonged. 

Ngz. Songs, tongs, prolongs. 

Ngth. Length, strength. 

PI. Pluck, ply, plain, plume; 

Pld. Rippled, tippled. 

Ph. Ripples, tipples, apples. 

Plst. Ripplest, tipplest. 

Pr. Pray, prance, prince, prime, prayer. 

Ps. Claps, raps, sips, nips, dips. 

Pst. Rapp'st, sipp'st, nipp'st, dipp'st. 

Rb. Herb, barb, rhubarb. 

Rbd. Barb'd. 

Rbs. Herbs, barbs. 

Rbst. Barb'st. 

jRfo&rt. Barb'd st. 

Rd. Bard, word, hard, lard, heard. 

Rds. Bards, words, interlards. 

Rdst. Heard'st, fear'dst, appear'dst. 

Rf. Surf, scurf, scarf, wharf. 

Rft. Wharf d, scarf d, scurf d. 

Rg. Burgh. 

Rgz. Burghs. 

Rj. Barge, large, dirge, charge. 

Rjd. Urged, enlarged, charged. 

Rk. Hark, lark, ark, dark, stark. 

Rkt. Hark'd, work'd, dirk'd. 

Rks. Harks, works, dirks, arks. 

Rkst. Work'st, embark'st, dirk'st. 

Rktst. Bark'dst, embark'dst, dirk'dst. 

Rl. Snarl, marl, whirl, did, girl, hurl. 

Rid. Snarl'd, hurl'd, world. 

Rh. Snarls, hurls, whirls. 

RUt. Snarl'st, hurl'st, whirPst. 

Rldst.SnwY dst, hurl'dst, whirl'dst. 

Rm. Arm, harm, farm, alarm. 

Rmd. Arm'd, harm'd, alarm'd, warm'd. 

Rmz. Arms, harms, alarms, warms. 

Rmst. Arm'st, harm'st, alarm'st, warm'st. 



62 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

Rmdst. Arm'dst, harm'dst, alarm'dst. 

Rn. Burn, spurn, turn, fern. 

Rnd. Burn'd, spurn'd, turn'd. 

Rnt. Burnt, learnt. 

Rnz. Urns, burns, turns, spurns. 

Rnst, Earn'st, learn'st. 

Rndst. Earn'dst, learn'dst 

Rp. Harp, carp, warp. 

Rpt. Harp'd, carp'd, warp'd. 

Rps. Harps, carps, warps. 

Rs. Hearse, verse, terse. 

Rst. First, erst, worst, burst, 

Rsts. Bursts. 

Rt. Heart, dart, mart, hart, part, art. 

Rts. Harts, darts, marts, parts, arts. 

Rtst. Hurt'st, dart'st, part'st. 

Rv. Curve, swerve, carve. 

Rvd. Curv'd, swerv'd, nerv'd. 

Rvz. Curves, swerves, nerves. 

Rvst. Curv'st, swerv'st, nerv'st. 

Rvtst. Curv'dst, swerv'dst, nerv'dst. 

Rz. Errs, avers, prefers, offers, scoffers, 

Rch. Search, lurch, birch, church. 

Rcht. Search'd, church'd. 

Rsh. Harsh, marsh. 

Rth. Hearth, earth, birth, dearth, mirth. 

Rths. Hearths, earths, births. 

Sh. Ship, shut, shun, shine, share. 

Sht. Push'd, hush'd, brush'd, crush'd. 

Sic. Mask, risk, brisk, frisk. 

Sht. Mask'd, risk'd, frisk'd. 

Sks. Masks, risks, frisks. 

Skst. Mark'st, risk'st, frisk'st. 

SI. Slay, slew, slain, slim, slink. 

Sid. Nestled, bristled, wrestled. 

Sm. Smoke, smite, smart, small, smack. 

Sn. Snail, snarl, snort, snag. 

Sp. Spurn, spank, spirt, spa. 

Sps. Whisps. 

St. Starve, stay, stock, strike. 

Str. Strain, strong, strive, strung. 

Sts. Busts, lusts, masts, fasts, blasts. 

Th. Thine, thee, that, those, there. 



RHETORICAL READING. 63 

Th. Thin, thistle, thief. 

Thd. Wreathed, breathed, sheathed. 

Thz. Wreathes, breathes, sheathes. 

Thst. Wreath'st, breath'st, sheath'st. 

27. Little, title, whittle, bottle, settle, nettle. 

Tld. Settled, whittled, bottled, nettled. 

Tlz. Battles, whittles, bottles, nettles, settles. 

Tlst. Settl'st, whittl'st, bottl'st, nettl'st. 

Tldst. Settl'dst, whittl'dst, bottl'dst. 

TV. Travels, trinket, trunk, contrive. 

Tz. Hats, flits, cats, bats, mats, brats. 

Tst. Combat'st. 

Vd. Swerved, nerved, curved, loved. 

Vdst. Liv'dst, nerv'dst, curv'dst, swerv'dst. 

VI. Swivel, drivel, grovel, novel. 

Vld. Drivel'd, grovePd. 

Viz. Drivels, swivels, grovels, novels. 

Vlst. Drivel'st, grovel'st. 

Vldst. Drivel'dst, grovePdst. 

Vn. Driven, riven, heaven. 

Vz. Lives, drives, swerves, nerves. 

Vst. Liv'st. 

Zl. Muzzle, dazzle. 

Zld. Muzzl'd, dazzl'd. 

Zlz Muzzles, dazzles. 

Zlst. MuzzPst, dazzl'st. 

Zldst. Muzzl'dst, dazzl'dst. 

Zm. Spasm, chasm. 

Zms. Spasms, chasms. 

Zn. Prison, risen, mizen. 

Znd. Imprisoned, reasoned. 

Znz. Prisons. 

Znst. Imprison'dst. 

CM. Fetch'd. 



64 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES I A' 



The pupil having been required to pronounce the letters 
and words in the preceding exercise, may now read the fol- 
lowing sentences, in which he must be particularly careful 
to pronounce clearly and distinctly every letter which is 
not silent. The sentences must be read very sloicly. 

512. Deeply possess your mind with the vast impor- 
tance of a good judgment, and the inestimable advantage 
of right reasoning. 

513. Review the instances of your own misconduct in 
life. 

514. Think seriously how many follies and sorrows you 
might have escaped ; and how much guilt and misery you 
might have prevented, if from your early years you had 
taken pains to judge correctly, concerning persons, times 
and things. 

515. This will awaken you with lively vigor to the 
work of improving your reasoning powers, and seizing 
every opportunity and advantage for that end. 

516. Consider the weakness, frailties, and mistakes of 
human nature in general; the depth and the difficulty 
of many truths, and the flattering appearances of false- 
hood. 

517. Whence arise the infinite varieties of dangers to 
which we are exposed in our judgment of things. 

518. Contrive and practice some suitable methods to 
acquaint yourself with your own ignorance, and to im- 
press your mind with a deep and painful sense of the low 
and imperfect degrees of your present knowledge. 

519. Presume not too much upon a bright genius, a 
ready wit, and good parts : for these, without labor and 
study, will never make a man of knowledge and wis- 
dom. 



RHETORICAL READING. 



65 



In order to show the pupil the difference between distinct 
and indistinct articulation, the following extract is pre- 
sented; the left hand column being printed as the piece is 
frequently read by pupils at school; and the right hand 
column exhibiting the same as it should be articulated. 



520. The young of all an- 
imals pear treceive playzhu 
from the excise of thlimbs 
an bodly facties, without ref- 
frence t enny end ter be 
tained, ur enny use tbe ansd 
by theexshun. 

521. Ur chile without 
knowin enny thing er the 
use er languige zin er high 
dgree dlighted with bin abe 
ter speak. 

522. Its cessant reption 
uv er few ticlate sounds or 
praps of a single word, which 
it has lunned ter prunounce, 
proves this point clilly. 

523. Nor ist less pleased 
with its fust successful deav- 
urs ter walk, or rath ter run 
which purcedes walkin, al- 
though tirely ignurunt er 
th importance er th attain- 
munt tits Alter life, an even 
without plyin it ter enny 
present purps. 

524. Childs dlighted with 
speak without hav enny 
thing tur say, an with walk 
without known wither ter 
go. 



520. The young of all an- 
imals appear to receive plea- 
sure from the exercise of 
their limbs and bodily facul- 
ties, without reference to 
any end to be attained, and 
any use to be answered by 
the exertion. 

521. A child, without 
knowing any thing of the 
use of language, is in a high 
degree delighted with being 
able to speak. 

522. Its incessant repeti- 
tion of a few articulate 
sounds, or perhaps of a sin- 
gle word, which it has learn- 
ed to pronounce, proves this 
point clearly. 

523. Nor is it less pleased 
with its first successful en- 
deavors to walk, or rather to 
run, which precedes walk- 
ing ; although entirely igno- 
rant of the importance of 
the attainment to its future 
life, and even without ap- 
plying it to any present pur- 
pose. 

524. A child is delighted 
with speaking, without hav- 
ing any thing to say ; and 
with walking without know- 
ing whither to go. 



*6 



^ 



66 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

525. An prevesly ter both I 525. And previously to 
these sreasonable ter blieve both these, it is reasonable 
that the wake hours funcy to believe that the waking 
ragreebly take up with thex- hours of infancy are agreea- 
cise vish, or praps more bly taken up with the exer- 
prop speak, with learn ter cise of vision, or perhaps, 
see. more properly speaking, with 

learning to see. 

In reading the above sentences in the right hand col- 
umn, the pupil tnust be particularly careful to pronounce 
clearly and distinctly all the sounds which he finds omitted 
in the left hand column. 



LESSON XXVL 



MANNER OR EXPRESSION. 

In this lesson, the pupil is required to adapt the manner 
of his reading to the meaning of the sentences which he is 
to read; and endeavor to imitate, as closely as possible, 
the tones which nature teaches him to use in common con- 
versation, or when he is affected by strong feelings. Thus 
if he have such a sentence as the following to read : 

" Sirrah, savage, dost thou pretend to be ashamed of 
my company ? Dost thou know that I have kept the best 
company in England ? " — 

He will of course read it in quite a different manner from 
that which he would use in this which folloivs : 

"Are you sick, Hubert? You look pale to-day. In 
sooth, I would you were a little sick, that I might sit all 
night and watch with you. I warrant I love you more 
than you do me." 

[ The following sentence should be read in an angry 
manner.'] 

526. Father, what sort of a tree is that which you 
have given me ? It is as dry as a broomstick ; and I 



RHETORICAL READING. 67 

shall not have ten apples on it. You have treated my 
brother Edmund better than you have me. You have 
given him a tree which is full of apples. You ought to 
make him give me half of them. 

[ The following should be read in a milder manner. ,] 

527. Give you half of them? Your tree was as fruit- 
ful and in as good order as his ; but you have not taken 
good care of it. Edmund has kept his tree clear of hurt- 
ful insects; but you have suffered them to eat up yours in 
its blossoms. I shall not direct him to share his apples 
with so idle a boy as you have been. 

[To be read in a respectful, calm, but decided manner.] 

528. Alexander! I am your captive — I must hear 
what you please to say, and endure what you please to 
inflict. But my soul is unconquered ; and if I reply at al! 
to your reproaches, I will reply like a free man. 

[To be read in a threatening manner.] 

529. He dares not touch a hair of Cataline. 

530. [With surprise.] What ! does life displease thee? 
[Calmly, but with emphasis.] Yes; — it displeases me 

when I see a tvrant. 

531. [Mildly.] The sun not set yet, Thomas ? Not 
quite, Sir. It blazes through the trees on the hill yon- 
der, as if their branches were all on fire. 

; 532. [ With energy.] Sirrah, I begin with this kick, as 
a tribute to your boasted honor. Get you into the boat, 
or I will give you another. I am impatient to have you 
condemned. 

533. [With moderation.] Stranger, if thou hast learnt 
a truth, which needs experience more than reason, that 
the world is full of guilt and misery ; and hast known 
enough of all its sorrows, crimes, and cares, to tire thee 
of it — enter this wild wood, and view the haunts of 
nature. 

534. [Proudly and haughtily.*] Do you pretend to sit 
as high on Olympus as Hercules? Did you destroy 
tyrants and robbers? You value yourself greatly on sub- 
duing one serpent. I did as much as that while I lay in 
my cradle. 



See Number 128, page 13, 



68 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

535. [With fear.] Mirza, terror and doubt are come 
upon me. I am alarmed as a -man who suddenly per- 
ceives that he is on the brink of a precipice, and is urged 
forward by an irresistible force ; but yet I know not 
whether my danger is a reality or a dream. 

536. [In a threatening manner.'] I know thou art a 
scoundrel ! Not pay thy debts ! Kill thy friend who 
lent thee money, for asking thee for it ! Get out of my 
sight, or I will drive thee into the Styx. 

537. [In a commanding manner.] Stop, I command 
thee. No violence. Talk to him calmly. 

538. [In a solemn manner.] Such are the excuses 
which irreligion offers. Could you have believed that 
they were so empty, so unworthy, so hollow, so absurd? 
And shall such excuses be offered to the God of heaven 
and earth? By such apologies shall man insult his 
Creator ? 

539. [In a mournful manner.] Oh my dear, dear 
mother! don't you know your son! your poor boy 
George ? 

540. [In a terrified manner.] The Lord have mercy 
upon us — what is this? 

541. [In a proud, disdainful manner.] Why then dost 
thou frown on Fingal ? Or shake thine airy spear? But 
thou frownest in vain : I never fled from mighty men. 
And shall the sons of the wind frighten the King of 
Morven? No; he knows the weakness of their arms. 

542. [In an energetic manner.] Nov/ launch the boat 
upon the wave, — the wind is blowing off the shore — I 
will not live a cowering slave, on these polluted islands 
more. Beyond the wild, dark heaving sea, there is a bet- 
ter home for me. 

543. [In a plaintive, sorrowful manner.] O Switzer- 
land ! my country ! 'tis to thee I strike my harp in agony : 
— My country! nurse of liberty, home of the gallant, 
great, and free, my sullen harp I strike to thee. O ! I 
have lost you all ! — parents, a"nd home, and friends. 

544. [With quickness and emphasis.] Talk to me of 
dangers? — Death and shame ! — is not my race as high, 
as ancient, and as proud as thine ? By heaven, it grieves 
me, Harry Percy, preaching such craven arguments to 



RHETORICAL READING. 69 

545. [With humility. ,] Father, I have sinned against 
heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be 
called thy son. 

546. [With horror.'] How frightful the grave! how 
deserted and drear ! with the howls of the storm wind — 
the creaks of the bier, and the white bones all clattering 
together. 

547. [With calmness.] How lovely, how sweet the re- 
pose of the tomb ! No tempests are there ; — but the 
nightingales come and sing their sweet chorus of 
bliss. 

548. [In an authoritative manner.] Heat me these 
irons hot; and look thou stand within the arras : when I 
strike my foot upon the bosom of the ground, rush forth, 
and bind the boy, which you shall find with me, fast to 
the chair : be heedful : hence, and watch. 

549. [In a supplicating tone.] Alas ! what need you 
be so boisterous rough 1 1 will not struggle, I will stand 
stone-still. For heaven's sake, Hubert, let me not be 
bound ! Nay, hear me Hubert ! drive these men away, 
and I will sit as quiet as a lamb ; I will not stir, nor 
wince, nor speak a word, nor look upon the irons angrily ; 
thrust but these men away, and I'll forgive you, whatever 
torments you do put me to. 



LESSON XXVII. 



PITCH OF THE VOICE. 

Every person has three keys, or pitches of the voice, 

Called THE HIGH, THE MIDDLE, and THE LOW KEY. 

The high key is that which is used in calling to a 
person at a distance. 

The middle key is that which is used in common con~ 
versation. 

The low key is that which is used when we wish no one 
to hear, except the person to whom we speak; and is almost 
but not quite a whisper. 



70 



PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



Each one of these keys or pitches of the voice has differ- 
ent degrees of loudness ; and it is important that the pupil 
should exercise his voice in speaking in all of these keys, 
both with mildness and with force. 

[ The pupil may read the following sentence in each of 
the different keys.~\ 

550. They have rushed through like a hurricane ; like 
an army of locusts they have devoured the earth ; the 
war has fallen like a water-spout, and deluged the land 
with hlood. 

[Read the following in the high key.~\ 

551. Next Anger rushed; — his eyes on fire, in light- 
nings owned his secret stings ; in one rude clash he 
struck his lyre, and swept with hurri-ed hands the strings, 

[Read the following in the low key.] 

552. With woful measures wan Despair — low sullen 
sounds his grief beguiled : — a solemn, strange, and ming- 
led air : — 'twas sad by fits, by starts 'twas wild. 

[Read the following in the middle key.] 

553. But thou, O Hope ! with eyes so fair, what was 
thy delighted measure? Still it whispered promised 
pleasure, and bade the lovely scenes at distance hail ! 

554. [Read with high key.] But with a frown Revenge 
impatient rose. He threw his blood-stained sword in 
thunder down ; and with a withering look, the war de- 
nouncing trumpet took, and blew a blast so loud and 
dread, were ne'er prophetic sounds so full of woe. And 
ever and anon he beat the doubling drum with furious 
heat : [Low key, very slowly.] and though sometimes, 
each dreary pause between, dejected Pity at his side, her 
soul-subduing voice applied, [High key, rapidly.] yet 
still he kept his wild, unaltered mien, while each strained 
ball of sight seemed bursting from his head. 

555. [Middle key.] Alexander the Great demanded of 
a pirate, whom he had taken, by what right he infested 
the seas ? By the same right, replied the pirate, that 
Alexander enslaves the world. But 1 am called a robber, 
because I have only one small vessel ; and he is styled a 
conqueror, because he commands great fleets and armies. 



RHETORICAL READING. 



71 



LESSON XXVIII. 



TRANSITION. 



fit is important that the pupil practice a change or trans- 
ition of the voice from loud and forcible utterance to a 
softer and lower tone ; and from rapid to slow pronuncia- 
tion. In this lesson he is presented with a kw examples 
in which such a change of manner is required.] 

556. [Softly and slowly.] An hour passed on — The 
Turk awoke. That bright dream was his last. [More 
loudly.] He woke — to hear the sentry's shriek, [Very 
loud and rapid.] " To arms ! they come ! the Greek ! 
the Greek ! " [Slowly and softly.] He woke to die midst 
flame and smoke, and shout and groan, and sabre stroke, 
and [Faster and louder.] death shots falling thick and 
fast, as lightnings from the mountain cloud : [Still louder.] 
and heard, with voice as trumpet loud, Bozzaris cheer his 
band; [Very loud, rapidly, and with much animation.] 
Strike — till the last armed foe expires, Strike — for your 
altars and your fires — Strike — for the green graves of 
your sires, God — and your native land. 

[In a softer and slower manner.] They fought — like 
brave men, long and well, — they piled that ground with 
Moslem slain, — they conquered — [Very slowly , and in 
a mournful manner.] but Bozzaris fell, bleeding at every 
vein. 

557. [In a gentle manner and low tone.] When, doffed 
his casque, he felt free air, around 'gan* Marmion wildly 
stare : — [Much louder, and in a wild and somewhat angry 
manner.] Where's Harry Blount? Fitz Eustace, where? 
Linger ye here, ye hearts of hare? Redeem my pennon, 
— charge again! Cry — 'Marmion to the rescue.' — 
[Very slowly, and almost in a whisper.] Vain! Last of 
my race, on battle plain, that shout shall ne'er be heard 
again! [Increasing in loudness.] Yet my last thought is 
England's : — [Louder, and with more earnestness.] fly — 

* A contraction for began. See Apostrophe, Lesson 20, page 44. 



72 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

Fitz Eustace, to Lord Surrey hie. [More rapidly.] 
Tunstall lies dead upon the field ; his life-blood stains the 
spotless shield : Edmund is down, — my life is reft, — the 
Admiral alone is left. [With much earnestness of man- 
ner.] Let Stanley charge with spur of fire, with Chester 
charge and Lancashire, full upon Scotland's central host, 
[Slowly.] or victory and England's lost. [Angrily.] 
Must I bid twice 1 — hence, varlets ! fly ! Leave Mar- 
mion here alone — to die. 

558. [Distinctly , slowly, and in a moderate tone.] Yet 
still Lord Marmion's falcon flew with wavering flight, 
while fiercer grew around the battle yell. [Loudly and 
quickly.] A home ! a Gordon ! was the cry. 

559. [Sloicly and with feeling.] Oh what a fall was 
there, my countrymen ! Then I, and you, and all of us 
fell down [Loudly and with emphasis.] while bloody 
treason flourished over us. 

560. [Softly and sloicly.] Oh now you weep; and I 
perceive you feel the dint of pity : — these are gracious 
drops. Kind souls! [Quickly ', louder , and with strong 
emphasis.] What, weep you when you but behold our 
Caesar's VESTURE wounded 1 [ Very loudly and ear- 
nestly.] Look ye here! — here is HIMSELF — marred 
as you see by traitors. 

561. [Very sloicly and sorrowfully.] Oh I could play 
the woman with mine eyes, and braggart with my tongue! 
— [With earnestness, and louder.] But gentle heaven, 
cut short all intermission ; front to front bring thou this 
fiend of Scotland and myself; [Still more forcibly, but 
with a lower tone.] within my sword's length set him ; if 
he escape, heaven forgive him too. 

562. [Proudly and with a loud and angry manner.] 
But here I stand and scoff you; — here I fling hatred 
and defiance in your face. [In a much milder manner, 
slowly and in derision.] Your consul's* merciful — For 
this — all thanks. [ Very loud, and in a threatening man- 



* The pupil will notice that there are many abbreviations of this 
kind made in this book in pieces which appear to be prose. All the 
sentences which are poetical have been printed in the form of prose, to 
prevent the " sing song" manner of reading - . But it must be under- 
stood and recollected that although abbreviations are allowable in poe- 
try, they are not admitted in prose. 



RHETORICAL READING. 73 

ner. See Number 529.] He dares not touch a hair of 
Cataline. 

563. [In a low tone, very softly.] His words do take 
possession of my bosom, — [Louder, and with earnest- 
ness.'] Read here, young Arthur. [Very softly.] How 
now, foolish rheum ! turning despiteous torture out the 
door ! I must be brief, lest resolution drop out at my 
eyes in tender womanish tears. — [Louder, and as if 
striving to hide his tears.] Can you not read it? Is it 
not fair writ ? 

564. [Slowly and in a very sad manner.] Too fairly, 
Hubert, for so foul effect. [In an entreating manner.] 
Must you with hot irons burn out both mine eyes ? 

[In a stern manner.] Young boy, I must. 

[In a very sorrowful and supplicating manner.] And 
will you ? 

[Sternly and in an apparently determined manner.] 
And I will. 

565. [With a very earnest, sorrowful and entreating 
manner.] Will you put out mine eyes ? These eyes that 
never did, nor never shall, so much as frown on you? 

566. [In a rough manner, but still struggling to con- 
ceal his pity.] I have sworn to do it ; and with hot irons 
must I burn them out. 

567. [In a very pathetic manner.] If an angel should 
have come to me, and told me, Hubert should put out 
mine eyes, I would have believed no tongue but Hu- 
bert's. 

568. [In a kind, relenting, and very feeling manner.] 
Well — see to live; I will not touch thine eyes, for all 

the treasure that thy uncle owns. — Yet I am sworn, 

and I did purpose, boy, with this same very iron to burn 
them out. 

569. [In a joyful and grateful manner.] O, now you 
look like Hubert ! all this while you were disguised. 

570. [In an animated manner.] The combat deepens — 
[ Very loud, rapidly, and with much energy.] On ye brave, 
who rush to glory, or the grave ! Wave, Munich, all thy 
banners wave ; and charge with all thy chivalry. 

571. [In a slow, solemn, and mournful manner.] Ah, 
few shall part where many meet ! The snow shall be 
their winding sheet, and every turf beneath their feet 
shall be a soldier's sepulchre. 

7 



74 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



LESSON XXIX. 



ELLIPTICAL SENTENCES. 

An Ellipsis* means an omission ; and when any thing 
is omitted, or purposely left out, it is said that there is an 
ellipsis in the sentence, and the sentence is called an ellip- 
tical sentence. 

Elliptical sentences occur very frequently ; and it is 
necessary, in reading such sentences, to supply, in our 
minds, all that is omitted, in order to give the proper tone, 
accent, emphasis, and expression. Thus in the following 
questions, — "What went ye out into the wilderness to 
see? A reed shaken by the wind?" — there is an ellip- 
sis or omission of the words, " did you go out to see ;" 
and when these words are supplied the questions will be, 
" What went ye out into the wilderness to see 1 Did 
you go out to see a reed shaken by the wind ? 

Elliptical sentences must always be read in the same 
manner, with the same emphasis, tone, accent, and expres- 
sion, that they would be if the ellipses were supplied. 

In the following sentences the ellipsis is supplied in 
Italic letters in a parenthesis. The pupil will first read 
them as they stand, and then read them with the omission 
of those parts which are in Italic letters. 

572. What sought they thus afar? {Did they seek) 
Bright jewels of the mine ? {Did they seek) The wealth 
of seas? {or) the spoils of war? {No, they did not seek 
either of these, but) They sought a faith's pure shrine. 

573. What then would it be reasonable to expect from 
the fanciful tribe, from the musicians and poets of such a 
region ? ( Would it be reasonable to expect) Strains ex- 
pressive of joy, tranquillity, or the softer passions ? No ; 
their style must have been better suited to their circum- 
stances. 

* See Lesson 19, page 42. 



RHETORICAL READING. 75 

574. Art thou the Thracian robber, of whose exploits I 
have heard so much ? 

(No ! I am not a Thracian robber, but) I am a Thra- 
cian, and a soldier. 

(Do you call yourself ) A soldier ? (J consider you as 
nothing better than) a thief, a plunderer, an assassin ! 
(who is) the pest of the country. 

575. No deep and deadly quarrel was between these 
brothers, and neither of them could distinctly tell the 
cause of this unnatural estrangement. Perhaps dim jeal- 
ousies of their father's favor — (was the cause of this un- 
natural estrangement — perhaps) selfish thoughts that 
will sometimes force themselves into poor men's hearts 
respecting temporal expectations — (was the cause of this 
unnatural estrangement.) 

576. What shall we call them 1 (Shall we call them) 
Piles of chrystal light 1 — (Shall we call them) A glorious 
company of golden streams — (Shall we call them) Lamps 
of celestial ether burning bright — (or) suns lighting 
systems with their joyous beams ? But thou to these art 
as the noon to night. 

577. Hail to your lordship ! I am glad to see you well. 
(It is) Horatio (who speaks to me) or I do forget my- 
self. 

578. (It is) The same, my lord, and (I am) your poor 
servant ever. 

579. Sir, (you are) my good friend. I'll change that 
name with you. 

580. Ah, whither now are fled those dreams of great- 
ness 1 (Whither now are fled) Those unsated hopes of 
happiness 1 ( Whither now are fled) Those busy bustling 
days? (Whither now are fled*) Those gay-spent, festive 
nights, (and) those veering thoughts, lost between good 
and ill, that shared thy life 1 

581. Almighty ! trembling like a timid child, I hear 
thy awful voice (and when I hear it lam) alarmed 

* The ellipsis is supplied at each of these enquiries, to show that the 
falling inflection of the voice is required at each of the questions } 
[See Lesson 6th,] and it will be noticed throughout this lesson that the 
ellipsis is supplied in parentheses in many sentences where it may ap- 
pear to be superfluous — but the author's design in so doing is to lead 
more directly to the proper intonation of the voice. As a particular 
instance of this kind, see number 580, 581, and 583. 



76 



PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



— (and) afraid. I see the flashes of thy lightning wild, 
and in the very grave would hide my head. 

5S2. Sourceless and endless God ! compared with thee 
life is a shadowy, (and not only a shadowy, but also a) 
momentary dream ; and (even) time, when viewed through 
thy eternity, (is) less than the mote of morning's golden 
beam. 

583. What excuse can the Englishman plead ? ( Will 
he plead) The custom of duelling? An excuse, this (is) 
that in these regions cannot avail. 

The spirit that made him draw his sword in the 
combat against his friend, is not the spirit of honor ; it is 
the spirit of the furies, (it is the spirit) of Alecto herself 
(who was the chief of the furies.) To her he must go, for 
she has long dwelt in his merciless bosom. 

584. Curse these cowardly covenanters — what (shall 
we do) if they tumble down upon our heads pieces of 
rock from their hiding places? (Shall we) advance? 
Or (shall toe) retreat? 

585. To save a bishop, may I name a dean ? (May 
you name) a dean. Sir ? No ; his fortune is not made, 
you hurt a man that's rising in the trade. If (I may) not 
(name) the tradesman who set up to day, much less (may 
I name) the apprentice who to-morrow may (set up.) 

586. And what are things eternal ? Powers depart, 
(and therefore they are not things eternal) possessions 
vanish, (and -therefore they are not things eternal) and 
opinions change, (and therefore they are not things eternal) 
and passions hold a fluctuating seat ; — (and therefore 
they are not things eternal) but, by the storms of circum- 
stance unshaken, and subject neither to eclipse nor wane, 
duty exists — immutably survives ! What (is there) more 
that may not perish ? 

587. So goes the world ; if (you are) wealthy, you may 
call this (man your) friend, that (man your) brother ; — 
friends and brothers all (men will be to you) (or you may 
call all men your friends and brothers.) 

588. I once saw a poor fellow (who was both) keen and 
clever, witty and wise; — he paid a man a visit, and no 
one noticed him, and no one ever gave him a welcome. 
(It is) Strange, cried I, whence is it (that this man is so 
Much neglected?) He walked on this side (of the room) 



RHETORICAL READING. 77 

and then on that (side of the room;*) he tried to intro- 
duce a social chat ; now here, now there, in vain he tried 
(to introduce a social chat.) Some (persons, when he 
spoke to them) formally, and freezingly replied (to him ;) 
and some (persons made him no proper answer, but) said 
by their silence (you would) better stay at home (than 
come here where you are not wanted.) 

589. A rich man burst the door. (A man who was) 
As Crcesus rich. I'm sure he could not pride himself 
upon his wit ; and as to wisdom he had none of it. He 
had what's better ; he had wealth. What a confusion, 
(there was when he entered the room.) All (who are in 
the room) stand up erect — These t (persons in this part 
of the room) crowd around to ask him of his health; 
(and) these (persons in another part of the room) arrange 
a sofa or a chair, and these (persons) conduct him there. 
(Some said to him) Allow me, sir, the honor (of handing 
you a chair, or of conducting you to it.) Then (they 
made) a bow down to the earth. Is't possible to show 
meet gratitude for such kind condescension?! 



* This example shows very clearly how the proper intonation of the 
voice is intimated by supplying the ellipses 5 although the sense is suffi- 
ciently clear as the sentence is expressed. 

t It may here be observed that a pause should be made in every ellip- 
tical sentence long enough to pronounce, or rather to think over, the 
words which are omitted. The above extract affords a clear illustration 
of this remark. 

% It may perhaps be thought that some ellipses are unnecessarily 
supplied in the preceding sentences — but the practical teacher will 
readily allow that a correct analysis is indispensable to the correct 
reading of a sentence ; and that the facilities afforded to a child in his 
Jirst attempts, cannot be too great. It will be borne in mind that this 
book is designed for very young, as well as for more advanced pu- 
pils. 



*7 



78 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



LESSON XXX. 



ANTITHESIS. 



The word antithesis means opposition or contrast. In 
all sentences in which an emphatic icord occurs, there is an 
antithesis expressed or understood ; and it is necessary to 
be able to distinguish the words which form the antithesis, 
or which are contrasted, in order to ascertain which word 
should be emphasized. Thus, in the sentence given in the 
introduction to the 23c? Lesson — "Shall you ride to- 
town to-day 1 " — if the answer be, No, I shall walk, there 
is an antithesis, or contrast, in the words ride and walk, 
which shows that ride is the emphatic word. Again, if 
the answer be, No, I shall ride into the country, the an- 
tithesis is in the words town and country, which shows that 
the word town is the emphatic word. Once more, — If 
the ansioer be, No, but I shall go to-morrow, the antithesis 
is in the words to-day and to-morrow ; which shows that 
the word to-day is to be emphasized. 

[It is thus seen, that it is necessary that the pupil should study out 
the meaning- of a sentence, and be able to form the antithesis upon 
which the emphatic words depend, in order to read it correctly and ex- 
pressive]}'. This exercise will often require a degree of judgment and 
discrimination not to be expected in a child, until the assistance of the 
teacher comes to his aid. Indeed, it is this very thing which constitutes 
the whole art of reading, and which often renders it a subject of deep 
study even to matured minds. It is, however, a subject of such para- 
mount importance, that it must not be overlooked nor neglected even in 
the lessons of very young pupils. The assistance afforded the pupil 
in this lesson, will lead his mind, it is thought, to a correct understand- 
ing of the subject, and enable him to apply his powers successfully to 
the analysis of other sentences, in which no aid is furnished for him.] 

In this lesson the emphatic word which forms the anti- 
thesis is printed in capitals, and the member of the anti- 
thesis which is understood is supplied in Italic letters be- 
tween crotchets. The pupil will first read the whole 
passage, and then read it with the omission of the part in 
crotchets. 



RHETORICAL READING. 



79 



590. Mercury, Charon's boat is on the other side of 
the water, (and as there will be time enough before he gets 
over to this side) allow me, before it returns, to have 
some conversation with the North American savage, 
whom you brought hither at the same time that you con- 
ducted me to the shades. 

591. Why judge you then so hardly of the dead 1 

(I judge so hardly of the dead, not for any thing that 
he has done but) For what he left undone. 

592. This man of half a million {was not destitute of 
them, but he) had all these public virtues that you 
praise. 

593. The darts of anguish (may strike, but they) fix 
not where the seat of sufTering hath been thoroughly for- 
tified by acquiescence in the will supreme, (not only for a 
short period, but) for time and for eternity. 

594. Hereditary bondmen ! Know ye not, who would 
be free (must not depend upon the assistance of others, 
but) themselves must strike the blow 1 By their right 
arm (not by the right arm of others) the conquest must 
be wrought. 

595. Where'er we tread (it is not a common spot, but) 
'tis haunted, holy ground. 

596. Authors of modern date are (not so poor as they 
formerly were, but they are) wealthy fellows. (It is not 
for the benefit of his assistance) 'Tis but to snip his 

locks they follow now the golden haired Apollo. 

597. Yet none but you by name the guilty lash ; (oth- 
ers lash them in a different manner.) 

598. It is often said by inconsiderate men, that time 
(not inclination) is wanted for the duties of religion. 

^99. My friends ! (do not be hasty, but) be cautious 
how ye treat the subject upon which we meet. 

600. Misses ! the tale that I relate (is not intended for 
your diversion alone, but it) seems to carry this lesson : 
Choose not alone a proper mate, but proper time to 
marry. 

601. As much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all 
men, (but not with all women.) 

602. You did not read that last sentence correctly ; for 
by emphasizing the word men, you made it appear as if 
the Apostle meant that you might quarrel with women 
and children, (if you would live peaceably with men.) 



80 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

Now his meaning is, that you should live peaceably with 
-all men, (not with your friends alone, but with all 

MANKIND.) 

[Sometimes both the words which constitute the antithe- 
sis are expressed; as in the following sentence.] 

603. It is from untamed passions, not from wild 
beasts, that the greatest evils arise to human society. 

604. By wisdom, by art, by the united strength of a 
civil community, men have been enabled to subdue (not 
only one single lion, bear, or serpent, but) the whole 
race of lions, bears, and serpents. 



LESSON XXXI. 



ENUMERATION. 



TVJien a number of particulars are mentioned in a sen- 
tence, it is called an Enumeration. 

In many sentences of this kind, it is proper to use the 
falling infection of the voice at each of the numbers of 
the enumeration, except the last but one, which should be 
read with the rising inflection. The following sentences 
are of this kind. In order to assist the pupil, the acute 
and grave accents are used to designate the inflections of 
the voice, according to the principles stated in Lesson 22, 
page 49. 

605. But who the melodies of morn can tell? — The 
wild brook babbling down the mountain's side j , the low- 
ing herd ; the sheepfold's simple bell ; the pipe of early 
shepherd, dim descried in the lone valley ; echoing far 
and wide, the clamorous horn along the cliffs above ; the 
hollow murmur of the ocean tide ; the hum of bees ; the 
linnet's lay of love ; and the full choir* that wakes the 
universal grove. 

* Pronounced quire. 



RHETORICAL READING. 81 

606. O how canst thou renounce the boundless store of 
charms that nature to her votary yields ! The warbling 
woodland, the resounding shore, the pomp of groves, the 
garniture of fields ; all that the genial ray of morning 
gilds, and all that echoes to the song of even ; all that the 
mountain's sheltering bosom shields, and all the dread 
magnificence of heaven ; oh how canst thou renounce 
and hope to be forgiven. 

607. The coffin was let down to the bottom of the 
grave, the planks were removed from the heaped up 
brink, the first rattling clods had struck their knell, the 
quick shovelling was over, and the long, broad, skilfully 
cut pieces of turf were aptly joined together, and trimly 
laid by the beating spade, so that the newest mound in 
the church yard was scarcely distinguishable from those 
that were grown over by the undisturbed grass and daisies 
of a luxuriant spring. 

608. The poor child of nature knew not the God of 
revelation ; but the God of the universe he acknowledged 
in every thing around him. He beheld him in the star 
that sank in beauty behind his lonely dwelling ; in the 
sacred orb that flamed on him from his midway throne ; 
in the flower that snapped in the morning breeze , in the 
lofty pine, that defied a thousand whirlwinds ; in the 
timid warbler, that never left its native grove ; in the 
fearless eagle, whose untired pinion was wet in clouds ; 
in the worm that crawled at his foot; and in his own 
matchless form, glowing with a spark of that light to 
whose mysterious source he bent in humble, though blind 
adoration. 

609. Our lives, says Seneca, are spent either in doing 
nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in 
doing nothing that we ought to do. 

610. It was necessary for the world that arts should be 
invented and improved, books written and transmitted to 
posterity, nations conquered and civilized. 

611. All other arts of perpetuating our ideas, except 
writing or printing, continue but a short time. Statues 
can last but a kw thousands of years, edifices fewer, and 
colours still fewer than edifices. 

612. Life consists, not of a series of illustrious actions, 
or elegant enjoyments ; the greater part of our time passes 
in compliance with necessities, in the performance of daily 



82 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

duties, in the removal of small inconveniences, in the pro- 
curement of petty pleasures: 

613. Though we seem grieved at the shortness of life 
in general, we x.re wishing every period of it at an end. 
The minor longs to be at age, then to be a man of busi- 
ness, then to make up an estate, then to arrive at honors, 
then to retire. 

614.. The devout man does not only believe, but feels 
there is a Deity ; he has actual sensations of him ; his 
experience concurs with his reason ; he sees him more in 
all his intercourse with him ; and even in this life almost 
loses his faith in conviction. 

615. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which 
are these ; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lascivious- 
ness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, 
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, 
drunkenness, revellings, and such like. 

616. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long- 
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temper- 
ance. 

617. The ill-natured man, though but of equal parts 
with the good natured man, gives himself a large field to 
expatiate in ; he exposes those failings in human nature 
over which the other would cast a veil, laughs at vices 
which the other either excuses or conceals, falls indiffer- 
ently on friends or enemies, exposes the person who has 
obliged him, and in short sticks at nothing that may es- 
tablish his character of a wit. 

618. What can interrupt the content of the fair sex, 
upon whom one age has labored after another to confer 
honors, and accumulate immunities 1 Those to whom 
rudeness is infamy, and insult is cowardice 1 Whose eye 
commands the brave, and whose smile softens the severe 1 
Whom the sailor travels to adorn, the soldier bleeds to 
defend, and the poet wears out life to celebrate ; who 
claim tribute from every art and science, and for whom 
all who approach them endeavor to multiply delights, 
without requiring from them any return but willingness to 
be pleased. 

619. Nature has laid out all her art in beautifying the 
face ; she has touched it with vermilion ; made it the seat 
of smiles and blushes ; lighted it up and enlivened it with 
the brightness of the eyes ; hung it on each side with cu> 



RHETORICAL READING. 83 

rious organs of sense ; given it airs and graces that can- 
not be described, and surrounded it with such a flowing 
shade of hair, as sets all its beauties in the most agreea- 
ble light. 

620. Should the greater part of the people set down 
and draw up a particular account of their time, what a 
shameful bill would it be ! So much in eating, and drink- 
ing, and sleeping, beyond what nature requires ; so much 
in revelling and wantonness ; so much for the recovery of 
the last night's intemperance ; so much in gaming, plays, 
and masquerades ; so much in paying and receiving formal 
and impertinent visits ; so much in idle and foolish pra- 
ting, in censuring and reviling our neighbors ; so much 
in dressing out our bodies and talking of fashions ; and 
so much wasted and lost in doing nothing at all. 

621. They, through faith, subdued kingdoms, wrought 
righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of 
lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of 
the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed 
valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the 
aliens. 

622. I conjure you by that which you profess, (howe'er 
you came to know it) answer me. Though you untie the 
winds, and let them fight against the churches ; though 
the yesty waves confound and swallow navigation up ; 
though bladed corn be lodged, and trees blown down ; 
though castles topple on their warder's heads ; though 
palaces and pyramids do slope their heads to their foun- 
dations ; though the treasure of nature's germins tumble 
altogether, even till destruction sicken, answer me to 
what I ask you. 

[Sometimes the falling inflection is used at each partic- 
ular in the enumeration except the last, as in the following 
sentences.'] 

623. To advise the ignorant, relieve the needy, com- 
fort the afflicted, are duties that fall in our way almost 
every day in our lives. 

624. The miser is more industrious than the saint. 
The pains of getting, the fear of losing, and the inability 
of enjoying his wealth, have been the mark of satire in all 
ages. 



84 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

625. When ambition palls in one way, interest another, 
inclination a third, and perhaps reason contrary to all, a 
man is likely to pass his time but ill, who has so many 
different parties to please. 

626. As the genius of Milton was wonderfully turned 
to the sublime, his subject is the noblest that could have 
entered into the thoughts of man. Every thing that is 
truly great and astonishing has a place in it. The whole 
system of the intellectual world, the chaos and the creation, 
heaven, earth, and hell, enter into the constitution of his 
poem. 

627. Labor, or exercise ferments the humors, casts 
them into their proper channels, throws off redundancies, 
and helps nature in those secret distributions without 
which, the body cannot subsist in its vigor, nor the soul 
act with cheerfulness. 



LESSON XXXII. 



IRONY. 



Irony consists in such expressions as are intended to 
convey a meaning directly opposite to what the words im- 
ply. Thus, when we say of a boy who never gets his 
lesson, that he is an admirable scholar: this is called 
Irony. 

The word or words which are ironical, are generally to 
be emphasized, sometimes with the circumflex and some- 
times with the other accents. In the following sentences 
the ironical parts are printed in Italic letters, and the 
pupil will manage his voice in pronouncing the accented 
words, according to the principles explained in Lesson 22, 
page 49. 

628. They will give enlightened freedom to our minds, 
who are themselves the slaves of passion, avarice, and 
pride. 



RHETORICAL READING. 85 

629. That lulled them as the north wind does the sea. 

630. " This is well got up for a closing scene" said 
Fergus, smiling disdainfully upon the apparatus of terror. 

631. Your consul is merciful: for this all thanks. — 
He dares not touch a hair of Cataline. 

632. Surely in this age of invention, something may be 
struck out to obviate the necessity (if such necessity 
exists) of so tasking — degrading the human intellect. 
Why should not a sort of mute barrel organ be constructed, 
on the plan of those that play sets of tunes and country 
dances, to indite a catalogue of polite epistles, calculated 
for all the ceremonious observances of good breeding ? 
Oh the unspeakable relief (could such a machine be 
invented) of having only to grind an answer to one of 
one's dear five hundred friends. 

633. Or suppose there were to be an epistolary steam- 
engine — Ay, thafs the thing — Steam does everything 
now-a-days. Dear Mr. Brunei, set about it, I beseech 
you, and achieve the most glorious of your undertakings. 
The block machine at Portsmouth would be nothing to it. 
That spares manual labor — this would relieve mental 

drudgery, and thousands yet unborn But hold! I 

am not so sure that the female sex in general may quite 
enter into my views of the subject. 

634. And it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked 
them and said, " Cry aloud, for he is a God : — either he 
is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or 
peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked. 

635. We have much reason to believe the modest man 
would not ask him for his debt, where he pursues his 
life. 

636. O terrible war ! in which this band of profligates 
are to march under Cataline. Draw out all your garri- 
sons against this formidable body ! 

637. But it is foolish in us to compare Drusus Africa- 
ns, and ourselves with Clodius; all our other calam- 
ities were tolerable ; but no one can patiently bear the 
death of Clodius. 

638. Do you think yourself as learned, or as smart a 
boy as Charles 1 Has he not learned the whole of the 

first page in his book 1 And did he not learn three lines 
in two hours? Could you do as much as thdtl 
8 



86 



PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



LESSON XXXIII. 



ANALOGY. 

The word Analogy means resemblance ; and it is taken 
as the title of this lesson to represent the principle stated 
hi the preface of this book, founded on the faculty of 
imitation. In connection with some colloquial sentence, 
another of less obvious import is given, requiring the same 
modulations and inflections of the voice. The sentences 
are printed side by side, and separated by a line. The 
pupil will read both sentences in the same manner, with the 
same modulation, tone, emphasis, and expression. The 
simple or colloquial sentence is called the model, and the 
more difficult one the analogical sentence. 



MODELS. 

639. Why did you drive 
your hoop so fast to-day ? 

640. Go tell your father 
how naughty you have been, 
and ask your mother to re- 
prove you. 

641. Thomas Smith, go 
away : take your things and 
run. Why do you bring 
such silly things here 1 Do 
you think I want them, you 
foolish boy 1 They are good 
for nothing; they are not 
worth having. 

642. I would rather be a 
kitten, and cry meio, than 
one of those same prosing 
letter-mongers. 

643. Do you pretend to 
sit as high in school as An- 



ANALOGICAL SENTENCES. 

639. Why looks your 
Grace so heavily to-day 1 

640. Go show your slaves 
how choleric you are, and 
bid your bondmen tremble. 

641. Son of night, retire : 
call thy winds and fly. Why 
dost thou come to my pre- 
sence with thy shadowy 
arms ? Do I fear thy gloo- 
my form, dismal spirit of 
Loda? Weak is thy shield 
of clouds : feeble is that me- 
teor thy sword. 

642. I'd rather be a dog, 
and bay the moon, than 
such a Roman. 

643. Do you pretend to 
sit as high on Olympus as 



RHETORICAL READING. 



87 



thony ? Did you read as 
correctly, speak as loudly, 
or behave as well as he?* 



644. Are you the boy of 
whose good conduct I have 
heard so much ? 

645. Have you not mis- 
employed your time, wasted 
your talents, and passed your 
life in idleness and vice? 



646. Who is that standing 
up in his place, with his hat 
on, and his books under his 
arm ? 

647. Did he recite his 
lesson correctly, read audi- 
bly, and appear to under- 
stand what he read ? 

648. Is that a map which 
you have before you, with 
the leaves blotted with ink. 



649. Henry was careless, 
thoughtless, heedless, and 
inattentive. 

650. Oh how can you de- 
stroy those beautiful things 
which your father procured 
for you ! — that beautiful top, 
— those polished marbles, — 



Hercules ?_ Did you kill the 
Nemaean lion, the Eryman- 
thian boar, the Lernean 
serpent, or Stymphalian 
birds ? 

644. Art thou the Thra- 
cian robber, of whose ex- 
ploits I have heard so much. 

645. Hast thou not set at 
defiance my authority, viola- 
ted the public peace, and 
passed thy life in injuring 
the persons and properties 
of thy fellow subjects? 

646. Whom are they ush- 
ering from the world with 
all this pageantry and long 
parade of death ? 

647. Was his wealth stor- 
ed fraudfully, the spoil of 
orphans wronged, and wid- 
ows who have none to plead 
their rights. 

648. Is this a dagger 
which I see before me, the 
handle towards my hand? 

648. Will you say that 
your time is your own, and 
that you have a right to em- 
ploy it in the manner you 
please? 

649. This is partial, un- 
just, uncharitable, iniqui- 
tous. 

659. Oh how canst thou 
renounce the boundless store 
of charms that nature to her 
votary yields ! — the warb- 
ling woodland, the resound- 



*Some of the sentences in this lesson may be found in previous parts 
of the book, see page 13, No. 128, &c. 



PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



that excellentball, — and that 
beautifully painted kite, — 
oh how can you destroy them 
and expect that he will buy 
you new ones.* 



ing shore, the pomp of 
groves, the garniture of 
fields; all that the genial ray 
of morning gilds, and all 
that echoes to the song of 
even, all that the mountain's 
sheltering bosom shields, 
and all the dread magnifi- 
cence of heaven, oh how 
canst thou renounce and 
hope to be forgiven 1 



LESSON XXXIV. 



THE SLUR. 

The Slur is the name given to such a management of 
the voice as is opposed to emphasis. Wlien a zcord or 
part of a sentence is emphasized, it is to be pronounced with 
a louder and more forcible effort of the voice, and it is fre- 
quently to be prolonged. But when a sentence or part of 
a sentence is slurred, it is to be read like a parenthesis,^ 
in an altered tone of voice, more rapidly, and not so forci- 
bly, and with all the words pronounced nearly alike.\ 



* The principle involved in this lesson will be found by the teacher 
a useful auxiliary in leading the pupil to the correct enunciation of dif- 
ficult sentences. It is deemed unnecessary to extend the lesson by nu- 
merous models or examples of analogy. The teacher will find it easy 
to form models for the pupil in his exercises in reading- 5 and if the ex- 
perience of the author may be adduced in proof of the utility and effi- 
cacy of the principle, he has little doubt that it will be acknowledged 
as a valuable aid in teaching the Art of Reading. 

t See page 28, Lesson 16. 

\ On the management of the Slur, much of the beauty and propriety 
of enunciation depends ; especially in all sentences in which parenthe- 
ses abound. How much soever a sentence may be cumbered with ex- 
planatory details, or interrupted and obscured by parentheses and un- 
important adjuncts, the reader, by a proper management of the Slur, 
can alwaj's bring forward the most important particulars into a strong 
light, and throw the rest into shade ; thereby entirely changing the 
character of the sentence, and making it appear lucid, strong, and ex- 
pressive. 



RHETORICAL READING, 89 

The parts which are to be slurred in this lesson are 
printed in Italic letters, and the words on which emphatic 
force is to be bestowed are printed in capitals, as in Lesson 
24, page 55. 

651. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more: By 
Sinel's death, I know I am thane of Glamis; but how of 
Cawdor ? The thane of Cawdor lives, a prosperous gen- 
tleman ; and to be King stands not within the prospect of 
belief, no more than to be Cawdor. Say from WHENCE 
you owe this strange intelligence; — or WHY upon this 
blasted heath you stop our way with such prophetic greet- 
ing. 

652. But let me ask, by WHAT RIGHT do you in- 
volve yourself in this multiplicity of cares ? WHY do 
you weave around you this web of occupation, and then 
complain that you cannot break it. 

653. And when the prodigal son came to himself he 
said, "How many hired servants of my father's have 
bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I 
will arise and GO to my father, and will say unto him — 
Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, 
and am no more worthy to be called thy son : — make me 
as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and was 
eoming to his father ; — but while he was yet a great way 
off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, 
and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son 
SAID unto him, " Father, I have sinned against heaven 
andbeforc thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son* 

654. When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees 
had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples 
than John, though Jesus himself baptized not, but his dis- 
ciples, he left Judea, and departed again into Galilee. 

655. Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye 
have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. 

656. STRANGER, if thou hast learnt a truth which 
needs experience more than reason, that the world is full 
of guilt and misery, and hast known enough of all its 
sorrows, crimes, and cares, to tire thee of it, — enter 
this wild wood, and view the haunts of nature. 

* This passage has been previously related, and all similar repeti- 
tions of what has been previously mentioned are to be slurred, unless 
there is particular reason for emphasizing' them. 

*8 



90 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

657. The calm shade shall bring a kindred calm, and 
the sweet breeze, that makes the green leaves dance, shall 
waft a balm to thy sick heart. 

653. The massy rocks themselves, the old and ponder- 
ous trunks of ponderous trees, that lead from knoll to 
knoll, a causey rude, or bridge, the sunken brook, and 
their dark roots with all their earth upon them, twisting 
high, breathe fixed tranquillity. 

659. The rivulet sends forth glad sounds, and trip- 
ping o'er its bed of pebbly sands, or leaping down the 
rocks, seems with continuous laughter to rejoice in its 
own being. 

660. Therefore said they unto him, how were thine 
eyes opened 1 He answered and said, A man that is 
called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said 
unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash : and I 
went and washed, and I received sight. *********** 
Then again the Pharisees asked him how he had re- 
ceived his sight. He said unto THEM, He put clay 
upon mine eyes, and, I ivashtd and do see. 

661. And oft he traced the uplands, to survey, when 
o'er the sky advanced the kindling dawn, the crimson 
cloud, blue main, and mountain gray, and lake dim 
gleaming on the smoky lawn: — far to the west, the long, 
long vale withdrawn, where twilight loves to linger for a 
while; and now he faintly kens the bounding fawn, and 
villager, abroad at early toil. But lo! the sun appears! 

and HEAVEN, EARTH, OCEAN SMILE. 

662. Oh God ! be thou a God, and spare while yet 'tis 
time! Renew not Adam's fall: — Mankind were then 
but twain ; but they are numerous now as are the waves, 
and the tremendous rain, whose drops shall be less thick 
than would their graves, were graves permitted to the 
sons of Cain. 

663. Mountains interposed, make enemies of nations, 
who had else like kindred drops been mingled into one. 

664. No ! dear as freedom is, and in my heart's just 
estimation prized above all price, I would much rather be 
myself the slave, and wear the bonds, than fasten them 
on him. 

665. A great city — situated amidst all that nature 
could create of beauty and profusion, or art collect of sci- 
ence and magnificence, — the growth of many ages — the 



RHETORICAL READING. 91 

scene of splendor, festivity, and happiness — -in one mo- 
ment withered as by a spell — its palaces, its streets, its 
temples, its gardens glowing with eternal spring, and its 
inhabitants in the full enjoyment of life's blessings, oblit- 
erated from their very place in creation, not by war, or 
famine, or disease, or any of the natural causes oj destruc- 
tion to which earth had been accustomed — but in a single 
night, as if by magic, and amid the conflagration, as it 
were, of nature itself, presented a subject on which the 
wildest imagination might grow weary, without even 
equalling the grand and terrible reality. 

666. And thou, oh silent form, alone and bare, whom 
as I lift again my head, bowed low in silent adoration, I 
again behold, and to thy summit upward from thy base 
sweep slowly , with dim eyes suffused with tears, AWAKE 
thou MOUNTAIN FORM. 

667. Ye stars ! which are the poetry of heaven, if in 
your bright leaves ice would read the fate of men and em- 
pires, — 'tis to be forgiven, that in our aspirations to be 
great, our destinies o'erleap their mortal state, and claim 
a kindred with you ; for ye are a beauty and a mystery, 
and create in us such love and reverence from afar, that 
fortune, fame, power, life, have named themselves a star. 

668. A few hours more, and she will move in stately 
grandeur on, cleaving her path majestic through the flood, 
as if she were a goddess of the deep. 

669. Falsely luxurious, will not man awake, and spring- 
ing from the bed of sloth, enjoy the cool, the fragrant, and 
the silent hour, to meditation due and sacred song. 

670. For is there aught in sleep, can charm the wise ? 
To lie in dead oblivion, losing half the fleeting moments of 
too short a life ; — total extinction of the enlightened soul! 
Or else to feverish vanity alive, wildereel and tossing 
through distempered dreams. 

671. But yonder COMES the powerful KING OF 
DAY, rejoicing in the east. The lessening cloud, the 
kindling azure, and the mountain's brow illumed with 
fleeced gold, his near approach betoken glad. LO, NOW 
APPARENT ALL, aslant the dew-bright and colored 
air, he looks in boundless MAJESTY abroad, and sheds 
the shining day, that burnished plays on rocks, and hills, 
and towers, and wandering streams, HIGH GLEAMING 

FROM AFAR. 



92 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

672. PRIME CHEERER, LIGHT ! of all material 
beings FIRST AND BEST; EFFLUX DIVINE, 
NATURE'S RESPLENDENT ROBE ! without whost 
vesting beauty all iverc wrapt in unessential gloom ; and 
THOU, OH SUN ! SOUL of surrounding WORLDS ! 
in whom best seen shines out thy Maker — may I sing of 
thee? 

673. 'Tis by thy secret, strong, attractive force, as with 
a chain indissoluble bound, thy system rolls entire ; from 
the far bourn of utmost Saturn, wheeling luide his round 
of thirty years, to Mercury, ivhose disk can scarce be 
caught by philosophic eye, lost in the near effulgence of 
thy blaze. 

674. And thus, in silent waiting, stood the piles of 
stone and piles of wood ; TILL DEATH, who in his 
vast affairs, ne'er puis things off — as men in theirs — 
and thus, if 1 the truth must tell, does his toork finally 
and well, WINKED at our hero as he passed, "Your 
house is finished Sir, at last; a narrower house — a house 
of clay — your palace for another day." 

675. The smoothness of flattery cannot now avail — 
cannot SAVE us in this r-ugged and awful crisis. 

676. What PROFIT hath a man 'of all his labor, 
which he taketh under the sun. 

677. IS there any thing ivhereof it may be said, See, 
this is new ? The thing which HAS been, it is that 
which shall be, and that which IS done, is that which 
SHALL be done, and there is no NEW thing under the 
sun. 

678. THOU, glorious mirror, where the Almighty's 
form glasses itself in tempests, in ALL time, calm or con- 
vulsed, in breeze, or gale, or storm, icing the pole, or in 
the torrid clime dark heaving, BOUNDLESS, END- 
LESS, and SUBLIME — the image of Eternity — the 
throne of the Invisible ; even from out thy slime, the mon- 
sters of the deep are made ; each zone obeys thee — thou 
goest forth, DREAD, FATHOMLESS, ALONE. 

679. CENTRE of light and energy! thy way is 
through the unknown void ; thou hast thy throne, morn- 
ing and evening, and at noon of day, far in the blue, un- 
tended and alone : Ere the first wakened airs of earth 
had blown, on didst thou march, triumphant in thy light. 
Then didst thou send thy glance, which still hath flown 



RHETORICAL READING. 93 

wide through the never-ending worlds of night; and yet 
thv full orb burns with flash unquenched and bright. 

630. In thee, FIRST LIGHT, the bounding ocean 
smiles, when the quick winds uprear it in a swell, that 
rolls in glittering green around the isles, where ever- 
springing fruits and blossoms dwell. 

681 THINE are the MOUNTAINS, — where they 
purely lift snows that have never wasted, in a sky which 
hath no stain ; below the storm may drift its darkness, 
and the thunder-gust roar by ; — ALOFT, in thy eternal 
smile, they lie, DAZZLING but COLD; — thy farewell 
glance looks there, and when below thy hues of beauty 
die, girt round them as a rosy belt, they bear into the 
high dark vault, a brow that still is fair. 

682. May THE LIKE SERENITY, in such dread- 
ful circumstances, and a DEATH EQUALLY GLORI- 
OUS, be the lot of all whom TYRANNY, of whatever 
denomination or description, SHALL, in any age, or in 
any country, CALL to expiate their virtues on the scaf- 
fold. 

683. Behold, I shew you a mystery ; We shall not all 
sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a MOMENT, in the 
TWINKLING of an EYE, AT the LAST TRUMP ; for 
the trumpet shall sound; and the dead be raised incorrupti- 
ble, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put 
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption 
and this mortal shall have put. on immortality , then shall 
be brought to pass the saying that is written DEATH 

IS SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY. 

684. OH WINTER ! RULER OF THE INVERT- 
ED YEAR ! thy scattered hair with sleet-like ashes filled, 
thy breath congealed upon thy lips, thy cheeks fringed 
with a beard made white with other snows than those of 
age, thy forehead wrapt in clouds, a leafless branch thy 
sceptre, and thy throne a sliding car, indebted to no wheels, 
but urged by storms along its slippery way, I LOVE 
THEE, all UNLOVELY as thou seem'st, and DREAD- 
ED as thou ART. 

685. Lo ! the unlettered hind, who never knew to raise 
his mind excursive to the heights of abstract contemplation, 
as he sits, on the green hillock by the hedge-row side, 
what time the insect swarms are murmuring, and marks in 



94 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

silent thought, the broken clouds, that fringe, with loveli- 
est hues, the evening sky, feels in his soul the hand of 
nature rouse the thrill of gratitude, to him who formed the 
goodly prospect ; he beholds the God throned in the west ; 
and his reposing ear hears sounds angelic in the fitful 
braze, that floats through neighboring copse or fairy 
brake, or lingers, playful, on the haunted stream. 

636. They shall hear of my vengeance, that would 
scorn to listen to the story of my wrongs. The miserable 
Highland drover, bankrupt, barefooted, stripped of all, 
dishonored and hunted down, because the avarice of oth- 
ers grasped at more than that poor all could pay, shall 
burst on them in an awful charge. 



The following- remarks upon the Slur, were communicated to the au- 
thor by a distinguished teacher, after the foregoing lesson was pre- 
pared. 

"In order to communicate clearly and forcibly the whole significa- 
tion of a passage, it must be subjected to a rigid analysis It will then 
be found, that, often one paramount idea pervades the sentence, al- 
though it may be associated with incidental statements and qualified in 
every possible manner. It is the province of the reader, by appropriate 
inflections and modulations of the voice, to communicate to the listener 
every shade of meaning, be it more or less delicate. The primary idea 
then will require a forcible utterance, while the other portions will be 
thrown into the shade. For want of a better name, we may designate 
as ' The Slur' that particular element in Elocution, by which those 
parts of a sentence of less comparative importance, are rendered less 
impressive to the ear. 

" It will be understood, that the use of stress alone, can by no means 
make a reader ; indeed, it is certain that the best elocutionists are those 
who most adroitly blend emphasis and slur. The presence of the slur 
generally implies the existence of emphasis ; and the former is often 
used to set an emphatic word or phrase in stronger relief. 

" A slurred passage must generally be read in a lower and less forci- 
ble tone of voice, and more rapidly than the context 5 and this element 
(namely, the slur,) must be emplo3'ed in cases of parenthesis, contrast, 
repetition, or explanation, where the sentence is of small comparative 
importance 5 and often where qualification of time, place, or manner is 
made/ 7 



RHETORICAL READING. 95 



LESSON XXXV. 



MEASURE OP SPEECH/ 



Jn Lesson 10th, page 16th, the pupil was informed that a pause 
is sometimes made in reading-, where there is no pause in the 
book. The pause to which aliusion is there made, is rendered necessary 
to allow the reader to take breath. This lesson is designed to explain 
to the pupil another sort of pause, or rather interruption of the voice, 
caused by the peculiar operation of the organs of speech. 

Dr. Rush, in his work on the human voice, has remarked, with regard 
to the manner that children learn to read, that "■■ the close attention 
which their ignorance requires, and their slowness of utterance, lead them 
to lay an equal stress upon every syllable, or at least upon every word. 
This habit continues along lime after the eye has acquired a facility in 
following up discourse, and in some cases infects pronunciation through- 
out subsequent life." 

The object of this lesson, which is entitled " Measure of Speech," is 
twofold : 1st. To teach the pupil so to manage his voice, in conform- 
ity with the natural operation of the organs of speech, as to break up 
the monotonous, or " equal" manner of reading above mentioned, and 
to introduce such an agreeable variety, as will cause peculiar melody 
of utterance ; and, 2dly. To enable him to read in such a manner 
that he will not be " out of breath," and consequently to exercise his 
voice without fatigue. 

A measure of speech consists of an accented and an 
unaccented portion of sound, produced hy one effort of the 
voice. 

In -pronouncing an accented syllable, the voice makes an effort, which 
must be repeated, if the next syllable is also an accented syllable. But 
if the next syllable or syllables be unaccented, the voice can pronounce 
them all with a single effort. Thus, the words spirt, spirit, spiritual, 
or spiritually, may each be pronounced with a single effort or pulsation 
of the voice. 

*The teacher who would thoroughly understand the subject treated in this les- 
son, and who aims at excellence in the a'rt of Reading, is referred to the very valu- 
able and scientific work of Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, entitled the " Philosophy of 
the Human Voice," or to Dr. Barber's Grammar of Elocution, a work founded on 
the principles advanced by Dr. Rush. Dr. Barber, whose opinion on the subject 
has great weight, says, " In Dr. Rush's work, the reader may repair to a fountain 
at ouce deep and full." In another place, Dr. Barber assures "every public 
speaker, and every philosophical actor, that he will fail in his duty to himself, if he 
neglects a diligent perusal of Dr. Rush's Philosophy of the Voice." The same may- 
also be said in relation to Dr. Barber's own work. From the works of both these 
gentlemen, the author has derived assistance in the preparation of these exercises. 



96 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

It may here be remarked, that it is not material whether the syllables 
belong 1 to the same word. The voice may utter, with a single effort, 
several syllables, even when they constitute different words. Thus, 
each of the following lines may be pronounced by a single effort or pul- 
sation of the voice : 

Came to the — 
When he was in — 
'Twas at the — 
Does to the — 
Oft did the — 
Utterable, dec. 

But when two accented syllables follow one another, there must be a 
distinct effort or pulsation of the voice to pronounce each. Thus, the 
words fate, hate, both being accented, require a distinct effort or pulsa- 
tion of the voice for the pronunciation of each , and a pause must be 
made between each, long enough to pronounce an unaccented syllable. 
It will thus be seen, that the two syllables, fatal or hating, can be pro- 
nounced by the same effort that is required to pronounce the syllables 
fate and hate. And here it may be remarked that while an accented 
syllable requires a distinct effort or pulsation of the voice in pronounc- 
ing it ; that an unaccented syllable is uttered without such effort. This 
distinction of the voice, in pronouncing accented and unaccented sylla- 
bles, is called by Dr. Barber, in his Grammar of Elocution, the pulsative 
and the remiss action of the voice. 

An accented syllable, therefore, is uttered by the pul- 
sative* action of the voice. 

An unaccented syllable is uttered by the remiss* action 
of the voice. 

A perfect measure of speech consists of one, or any 
number of syllables, (not exceeding five,) uttered during 
one pulsation and remission of the voice. 

It may here be remarked, that a single syllable may constitute a 
measure 5 for if it be extended in sound, the first part of that sound 
may be accented or heavy, and the latter unaccented or light. But a 
short syllable will not constitute a measure. 

More than one syllable cannot be uttered during the pulsative effort 
of the voice; while one, two, three, and even four, can be uttered during 
the remiss action ; as in the word spiritually, in which the first syllabic, 
spir is pronounced by the pulsative, and the syllables itually by the 
remiss action of the voice. 



* As a proper understanding of these terms is deemed essential to a clear compre- 
hens on of the principle on which this lesson is founded, the teacher who wishes a 
fuller developement of the subject, is referre-1 to Dr. Barber's Grammar of Elocu- 
tion — or to Dr. Rush's work, already mentioned, on the Philosophy of the Human 
Voice, Section 49th, entitled " The Rhythmus of Speech." 



RHETORICAL READING. 



97 



An imperfect measure of speech consists of a single 
syllable on which the acute accent is placed, — or of a 
syllable or syllables which are unaccented. 

In the following examples for reading, the lines are di- 
vided into several parts, which are separated by a mark 
like this | called a bar, and the parts divided by the 
bars are all perfect or imperfect measures of speech. 

The accented syllables, or those which require the pul- 
sative effort of the voice, are noted by a star * under 
them, and the unaccented syllables, or those which re- 
quire the remiss action of the voice, have hyphens - under 
them. 

The time occupied in reading each portion between 
the bars must be equal, whether the bar includes a per- 
fect or imperfect measure of speeeh. A bar may contain 
an imperfect measure; the accented or the unaccented 
portions of the measure being omitted. In that case, a 
mark like this 7 is inserted, to indicate a rest or stop long 
enough to pronounce the portion which is omitted.* 

[In reading the following passages, the pupil will re- 
collect that all the syllables which have a star under them 
are accented — that all which have the hyphen under them 
are unaccented — and that all the marks like this 7 indi- 
cate that a pause is to be made long enough to pronounce 
an unaccented syllable.] 



7 In the 



second 



687. 
century 



7 of the 



Christian 



era 7 the empire of Rome 7compre- hendedthe 



* Dr. Rush, in the very valuable work already mentioned, has the 
following- remarks in relation to the method of marking and dividing 
sentences here introduced: 

" This notation will not indeed inform us what syllables are to be 
emphatic, nor where the pauses are to be placed : but it will enable a 
master, who knows how to order all these things in speech, to furnish 
that which most men require for every thing they do— a copy. If a 
boy is taught by this method, he acquires the habit of attention to the 
subjects of accentuation and pause, which may be readily applied in 
ordinary discourse. " 

9 



PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



fairest 

* . 

ized 

. * 



part of the 1 earth 



7 and the 



most 7 I civil- 
* * _ 



portion of man- 



kind. 

* : 



688 
Twas at the I royal I feast 7 I 7 for I Persia I won. 



HoHENLINDEN.* 



7 On 

* . 

7 All 
# 



Linden 



77 
# L 



689. 

when the 
* 



bloodless 



77 



7 And 



7 Of I Iser 

* \ * _ 



dark as 



rolling 



7 But I Linden I 77 



sun was 
# 



low, 



77 



lay the 

* 


un- 


trodd 


3n 


sn( 

* 


winter 

* 


7 was the 

* 


flow 1 

* _ 


rapidlv, 

* _ 1 


77 


77 









690. 



saw an- 



other I sight 



When the 



drum | beat I 7 at I dead of 



night 



7 Com- I manding 
* * 

7 The I darkness 



fires of 
7 of her 



death 

* 


4 
* 


to 


light 

* _ 


scener 


y- 


77 


77 



* Although there are many poetical extracts in the preceding- parts of 
this book, this is the first extract in which the lines are distinguished. 
All the preceding extracts have been presented in sentences like prose, 
to prevent that sing-song manner of reading into which children are 
apt to fall. Il is thought that the introductory remarks in this lesson 
are adapted to prepare the pupil to read verse, without the danger of 
" favoring the poetry," as this sing-song is sometimes called. The 
usual punctuation is omitted, in this lesson, as the system of notation 
adopted fully supplies its place. 



RHETORICAL READING. 



99 



691. 



7 By 

* . 

Each 

* . 

7 And 

* _ 

7 To 

* 



Then 

* _ 

Then 

* _ 

77 And 



torch and 
horseman 

furious 
join the 

shook the 



trumpet 

drew his 

* 



77 
dreadful 



every 



77 
battle 
charger 



fast ar- I rayed 



blade 



77 



neighed 



rushed the 



hills 
steed 



revelry. 

# 

692. 

7 with 

# _ 

7 to 



77 



77 



thunder 



riven 



battle 



driven 
# 



louder than the 



Far I flashed 

* _ * 



7 the 



red 



bolts of 
7ar- 



heaven 



77 



tillery. 



77 



77 



7 And 

* _ 

7 On 

7 And 

* - 

7 Of 



redder 

* 

Linden's 

darker 

* 



693. 

7 those 

Is of 



yet 

* _ 



fires shall 



blood-stained 



glow I 
* - I 

snow I 77 

* _ 



yet 

* _ 



Iser 



rolling 



7 shall 
rapidly. 



694. 



be the 



flow 



77 



77 



7 'Tis I morn I 77 I 7 but I scarce I yon I lurid I sun 



7 Can I pierce the I war clouds I rolling | dun I 77 



7 Where I furious I Frank I 7 and I fiery I Hu 
* - |*_- I* -j* . [ * _ | * 

77 I Shout in their I sulphurous I canopy. I 77 I 77 



100 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

7 The I combat I deepens I 77 I 77 I On I 7 ye I brave I 

* -I* - * . I *- 1 *- I * - I * _ | * _ 

7 Who I rush to I glory I 77 I 7 or the I grave I 77 I 77 I 

* - I* - | * - | |*-_|*.| 

Wave I 77 I Munich I 77 I all thy I banners I wave I 77 I 
* - I I* -I |*-|*- |*_| 
7 And I charge I 7 with I all I 7 thy I chivalry, j 77 I 77 



695. 

Few I few shall I part I where I many I meet I 77 I 77 



7 The I snow I 7 shall be their I winding I sheet I 77 

* - I * - I * - - - J '■■ * - I * . j 

7 And I every I turf I 7 be- I neath their I feet 

* - I * . . I * . I * . j * _ j * . 

7 Shall 1 be a I soldier's I sepulchre. | 77 | 77 



Catharina. 



696. 

7 She I came 7 I 7 she is | gone 7 | 7 we have I met 7 
*- * _|*_.| *-|*_ _|#_ 

7 And I meet perhaps I never a- I gain 



7 The | sun of 1 that 7 I moment I 7 is I set 7 

* _ |* _ | * -I* . |*_|*_ 

7 And I seems to have I risen in I vain. 7 I 



697. 



77 


Catha- 


rina 


7 has 

* 


fled like a 

* _ 


dream 

* _ 


So 

* - 


vanishe 

* _ _ 


3 


pie 


asure 




7 a- 
* - 


las 7 

* - 


77 1 



RHETORICAL READING. 



101 



But has 

* 


left 7 


7 a 

* _ 


re- 


gret 


7 




7 
-* 


and 


es- 


teem 




7 That 


will not so 

* _ _ 


suddenly 

* 


pass. 7 




698. 


7 In 1 yonder 


grave 


7a 

* _ 


Druid 

* _ 


lies 7 

* 




7 Wher 
* 


3 slowly 

# _ 


winds the 

* 


stealing 


wave 7 

* 


77 


7 The 

* 


year's 

* 


best 

* 


sweets shall 


duteous 


rise 7 

* 


7 To c 

* __ 


!eck 


7 


it& 




Poet 

* 


's 


s 




van 


grave. 

* - 









[The pupil will observe that prose as well as poetry is 
made up of similar measures of speech. The only differ- 
ence in sound, between poetry and prose, is that poetry 
or verse consists of a regular succession of similar meas- 
ures, which produce a harmonious impression on the ear; 
while in prose, the different kinds of measure occur pro- 
miscuously without any regular succession. The follow- 
ing example affords an instance of prose divided off into 
measures.] 



699. 



And I be- 


held 

* _ 


7 and 


1 


heard the 

* 


voice 

# 


of 1 ma- 

- * 


ny 1 angels 

- 1 * 


round a 

* 


- bout the 


throne 

* 


7 and the 1 

* _ 1 


beasts 

* 


7 and the < 

* 


elders 

* - 


77 


7 and the 

* - 


number of 

* _ 


them 


7 was 

* 


ten 7 


thousand 1 times | ten 7 

' * - * * 


thou- 


sand 


7 and 

* 


thousands of 

* 


thousands 


77 


Saying 

* - 


with a 


| loud 

1 * _ 


1 voice 

1 # - 


77 


^ 


Nc 


rt 


hy is th 


e 


L 




b that 



*9 



102 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



was slain 7 | 7 to re- | ceive power 

# I * # * 

7 and I wisdom 



7 and | riches 
* I * _ 



7 and | strength | 7 and | honor | 7 
# * _ _ I*- * - | * 

and | glory | 7 and | blessing. | 

- i * - i* - I * - I 

[In the following extracts, the marks of the accented 
and unaccented syllables are omitted, but the bars and 
rests are retained. The usual punctuation is also re- 
stored.] 

700. 

PART OF THE NINTH CHAPTER OF ST. JOHN. 

And as | Jesus | passed | by, 7 | 7 he | saw a | man 
which was [ blind from his | birth. | 7 7 | 7 7 | And his 
dis- | ciples | asked him, | saying, | Master, | who did | 
sin, 7 | 7 this | man | 7 or his | parents, | that he was | 
born 7 | blind? | 77 | 7 7 | Jesus | answeied, | Nei- 
ther hath this | man | sinned | nor his | parents: | 7 7 | 
but that the | works of | God | 7 should be | made 7 | 
manifest in | him. 7 7 | 77 | I must | work the | 
works of | him that | sent me, | while it is | day ; | 7 7 | 
7 the | night | cometh | 7 when | no 7 | man | can 7 | 
work. 7 | 77 | 77 | 7 As | long | 7 as | I am in 
the | world, 7 | I | am the | light [ 7 of the | world. | 
7 7 | 7 7 | Wiien he had | thus 7 | spoken, | 7 he | 
spat on the | ground, 7 | 7 and | made | clay | 7 of 
the | spittle, | and he a- | nointed the | eyes 7 | 7 of 
the | blind | man | 7 with the | clay, 7 | 7 and | said 
unto him, | Go, 7 | wash in the | pool of | Siloam, | 
7 7 | (which is, by in- | terpre- | tation, | Sent.) | 7 7 j 
7 7 | 7 He | went his | way, | therefore, | 7 and | wash- 
ed, | 7 and | came | seeing. | 7 7 | 7 7 | 

7 The | neighbors | therefore, | 7 and | they which 
be- | fore had | seen him, | that he was | blind, | 7 7 | 
said 7 | Is not j this 7 | he that | sat and | begged ? | 



RHETORICAL READING. 103 

77 | 77 | Some | said, 7 | This | is | he ; | 7 7 | 
others ] said, 7 | He is | like him : | 7 7 | 7 but | he | 
said, | 7 I | am | he. | 7 7 | 7 7 | Therefore | said they 
unto him, | 7 7 | How | were thine | eyes | opened? | 
7 7 | 7 7 | 7 He | answered and | said, | 7 A | man j 
7 that is | called | Jesus, | made | clay, | 7 and a- | noint- 
ed mine | eyes, | 7 and | said unto me, | Go to the | 
pool of | Siloam, | 7 and | wash : 7 | 7 7 | 7 and I | went 
and | washed, | 7 and 1 re- | ceived | sight. | 77 | 7 7 | 
Then | said they unto him, | 77 | Where | is he? | 7 7 | 
7 | He | said, 7 | 7 | I know not. | 7 7 | 7 7 | 

7 They | brought to the | Pharisees | him that a- [ 
fore time | 7 was | blind. \ 7 7 | And it was the | Sab- 
bath | day 7 | 7 when [ Jesus | made the | clay, | 
7 and | opened his | eyes. | 7 7 | Then a- | gain the | 
Pharisees | also | asked him | how he had re- | ceived 
his | sight. | 7 7 | 7 He | said unto | them,* | 7 He | 
put 7 | clay 7 | 7 upon mine | eyes, | 7 and I | washed | 
and do | see. | 7 7 | 77 | Therefore said | some of the | 
Phariseas, | 7 This | man is | not of | God, | 7 be- | 
cause | 7 he | keepeth not the | Sabbath | day. | 7 7 | 
Others | said, 7 | How can a | man that is a | sinner, | 
do such | miracles ? | 7 7 | And there was | 7 a di- | 
vision a- | mong them. | 7 7 | 7 7 | 7 They say | unto 
the | blind | man a- | gain, 7 | 7 7 | What | sayest | 
thou of him I | that he hath | opened thine | eyes ? | 
7 7 | 7 He said, 7 | He is a | prophet. | 7 7 | 7 7 | 

701. 

PSALM CXXX1X. 

O | Lord, 7 | thou hast | searched me, | 7 and | known 
me. | 7 7 | 7 7 | 7 Thou | kiiowest my | down | sitting | 
7 and mine | up 7 | rising ; | 7 thou | under- | standest 
my | thoughts | 7 a- | far | off. 7 | 7 7 | 7 7 | Thou | 

* See number 660, page 90. 



104 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

compassest my | path, 7 | 7 and my | lying | down, 7 | 
and art ac- | quainted with | all my | ways. | 7 7 | For 
there is j not a | word in my | tongue, | 7 but | lo, 7 | 
O 7 | Lord | thou 7 | knowest it | alto- | gether. | 7 7 | 
7 7 | Thou hast be- | set me | 7 be- | hind and be- | 
fore, 7 | 7 and | laid thine | hand up- | on me. | 7 7 | 
7 7 | Such 7 | knowledge is | too | wonderful for | me: | 
7 7 | it is | high 7 | 7 I | cannot at- | tain unto it. | 7 7 | 
7 7 | Whither shall I | go 7 | 7 from thy | spirit? | 7 7 | 
7 or | whither shall I | flee from thy | presence ? | 7 7 | 
7 7 | If I as- | cend 7 | up into | heaven, | 7 7 | thou 
art | there : | 7 7 | if I | make my | bed in | hell | 
7 be- | hold, 7 | thou art | there. | 7 7 | 7 7 | If I | take 
the | wings of the | morning | 7 and | dwell in the | ut- 
termost | parts of the | sea : | 7 7 | Even | there | 7 shall 
thy | hand 7 | lead me, | 7 and thy | right 7 | hand 
shall | hold me. | 7 7 | 7 7 | If I | say, | Surely the | 
darkness shall | cover me : | 7 7 | even the | night 7 | 
7 shall be | light a- | bout me : | 7 7 | Yea, | 7 the dark- 
ness | hideth not from | thee ; | 7 7 | but the | night | 
shineth as the | day : | 7 7 | 7 the | darkness | and the | 
light 7 | 7 are | both a- | like | 7 to | thee. | 7 7 | 77 | 

702. 

MARCO BOZZARIS. 

[He fell in an attack upon the Turkish camp at Lapsi, the site of an- 
cient Plataea, August 20, 1S23, and expired in the moment of victory.] 

7 At I midnight, | 7 7 | in his | guarded | tent, 7 | 
7 The | Turk | 7 was | dreaming | 7 of the | hour, | 

7 When | Greece, | 7 her | knee in | suppliance | bent, 7 | 
7 Should | tremble | 7 at his | power ; | 

7 7 | 7 In | dreams, | 7 through | camp and | court, 7 | 
7 he | bore 7 | 

7 The | trophies | 7 of a | conqueror. | 






RHETORICAL READING. 105 

In | dreams, | 7 his | song of | triumph | heard ; | 7 7 j 

77| 
Then 7 | wore his | monarch's | signet | ring, — | 7 7 | 
Then 7 | press'd that | monarch's | throne, — | 7 7 | 7 a 

| Kingi 7 | 77 [ 
7 As | wild his | thoughts, 7 | 7 and | gay of | wing, 7 | 

7 As | Eden's | garden | bird. 7 | 7 7 | 7 7 | 
703. 
7 At | midnight, [ 7 in the | forest | shades, j 7 7 | 

7 Boz- | zaris | ranged his | Suliote | band, | 7 7 | 
True [ 7 as the | steel | 7 of their | tried | blades, | 

Heroes | 7 in | heart and | hand ; j 7 7 | 7 7 | 
There had the | Persian's | thousands | stood, 7 | 
There [ 7 had the | glad 7 | earth 7 | drunk their | blood 
7| 

7 | On | old Pla- ] tsea's | day : | 
7 And | now,7 | 7 there | breathed that | haunted j air 7 | 
The | sons | 7 of | sires who | conquered | there, 7 | 
7 With | arm to | strike 7 | 7 and | soul to | dare, | 

7 As | quick, 7 | 7 7 | 7 as | far as | they. 7 | 7 7 | 7 7 [ 

704. 

7 An | hour pass'd | on — 7 | 77 | 7 the | Turk a- | woke : 
|.7 7| 

That 7 1 blight 7 | dream | 7 was his | last ; 7 | 7 7 | 
7 He | woke — 7 ] 7 to | hear his | sentry's | shriek:, | 
7 "To | arms ! [ 7 they | come ! | 7 the | Greek, 7 | 7 the 

| Greek." 7 | 
7 He | woke — to | die | 7 midst | flame and | smoke, 7 1 
7 And | shout, and | groan, and | sabre stroke, 7 | 
77 | 7 And | death-shots | falling | thick and | fast 7 | 
7 As | lightnings | 7 from the | mountain [cloud ; 7 | 77 | 
7 And | heard, 7 | 7 with | voice as | thunder | loud, 7 | 

7 Boz- | zaris | cheer his I band ; \ 



106 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

7 7 | " Strike — 7 j 7 till the | last | armed | foe ex- j pires, 

7 |.7 7J 
Strike | 7 7 | 7 for your | altars | 7 and your | fires, 7 | 

77 | 
Strike J 7 for the | green | graves of your | sires, | 7 7 | 
God— 7 | 7 and your | native | land !" 7 | 7 7 j 7 7 | 
705. 
They | fought,7 | 7 like | bra*e | men, 7 | long and | well, 
7|77| 
7 They | piled that | ground | 7 with | Moslem ] slain, 7 1 
7 They | conquer'd — | 7 7 | hut Boz- | zaris | fell, 7 | 
7 7 | Bleeding at | every | vein. 7 | 7 7 1 7 7 | 7 7 | 
7 His | few sur- | viving | comrades j 7 7 | saw 7 | 
7 His | smile, | 7 when | rang their | proud 7 | hurrah, | 

And the | red 7 | field 7 \ was | won ; 7 | 7 7 | 
Then | saw in | death 7 \ 7 his | eyelids | close 7 | 
Calmly, | as to a | night's re- | pose, 7 | 

7 Like | flowers at 1 set of | sun. 7 | 7 7 | 7 7 | 

706. 

Come to the | bridal | chamber, | Death ! 7 | 

Come to the | mother, | 7 when she | feels, 7 | 
7 For the | first 7 | time, 7 | 7 her | first-born's | breath; | 
7 7 | Come when the j blessed | seals 7 | 
Which | close the | pestilence 1 7 are 1 broke, 7 | 7 7 | 
7 And | crowded | cities | wail its | stroke ; — 7 | 7 7 | 
Come in con- | sumption's ghastly | form, 7 | 
7 The | earthquake | shock, 7 | 7 the 1 ocean | storm; — | 
Come when the | heart | beats | high and | warm, 7 | 

7 With | banquet | song, | 7 and | dance, and | wine,7 | 
7 7 | And | thou art | terrible !— 7 the | tear, 7 | 
7 The | groan, | 7 the | knell, 7 | 7 the | pall, 7 | 7 the | 

bier, | 
7 And | all we | know, 7 | 7 or | dream, or | fear 7 | 
7 Of | agony, | 7 are | thine. | 7 7 | 7 7 | 



RHETORICAL READING. 107 

707. 

But to the | hero, ( 7 when his | sword 7 | 

7 Has j won the | battle | 7 for the | free, | 7 7 | 

7 | Thy voice 7 J sounds like a | prophet's | word, 7 | 7 7 [ 

And in its | hollow | tones are | heard 7 | 

7 The | thanks of | millions | yet to | be. 7 | 7 7 | 7 7 | 

7 Boz- | zaris ! | 7 7 | 7 with the | storied | brave 7 [ 
Greece | nurtured | 7 in her | glory's time, 7 | 7 7 j 

Rest thee — | 7 7 | there is | no | prouder | grave, | 
Even in her j own 7 | proud 7 | clime. | 7 7 | 7 7 | 
7 We | tell thy | doom | 7 with- | out a | sigh ; 7 | 

For thou art | Freedom's | now,7 | 7 and j Fame's ;7 | 77 1 

One of the | few, 7 | 7 the im- j mortal | names, | 7 7 | 
7 That | were not | born to | die. 7 | 7 7 | 7 7 | 

708. 
Anthony's oration over cesar's body. 

Friends, | 7 7 | Romans, | 7 7 | Countrymen ! | 7 7 | 

Lend me your | ears ; | 7 7 | 7 7 | 
7 I | come | 7 to | bury | Caesar, | 7 7 | not to | praise | 

him. | 77 | 77 | 
7 The | evil, | 7 that | men | do, | lives | after them ;| 77 1 
7 The | good | 7 is | oft in- | terred | 7 with their | 

bones : | 7 7 | 
So let it | be | 7 with | Caesar ! | 7 7 | 7 The | noble | 

Brutus | 
7 Hath | told you, | Caesar | 7 was am- | bitious. | 7 7 | 
If it | were so, | it was a | grievous | fault; | 7 7 | 
7 And | grievously | 7 hath | Caesar | answered it. | 77 | 
Here, | under | leave of | Brutus | 7 and the | rest, | 
7 (For | Brutus | 7 is an | honorable | man, | 77 | 
So are they | all, 7 | all | honorable | men;) | 77 | 
Cornel | 7 to | speak | 7 in | Caesar's | funeral. | 77|77 



108 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

709. 

He was my | friend*, | 7 7 | faithful | 7 and | just to | 

me: | 77 | 
7 But | Brutus | says | he was am- | bitious ; | 77 | 
7 7 | 7 And | Brutus | 7 is an | honorable | man. | 7 7 | 

77 | 
He hath | brought | many | captives | home to | Rome, | 
7 Whose | ransoms | 7 did the | general | coffers | fill : 

| 7 7 | 77 | 
7 Did | this | 7 in | Caesar | seem am- | bitious? 177|77| 
When that the | poor have | cried, | 7 7 | Caesar hath | 

wept ; | 7 7 | 7 7 | 
7 Am- | bition ] 7 should be | made of | sterner | stuff. | 

77 | 77 | 
7 Yet | Brutus | says | 7 he | was am- | bitious ; | 
7 7 | 7 And | Brutus | 7 is an | honorable | man. | 7 7 | 

77| 
7 You | all did | see, | 7 that, | on the | Lupercal, | 
71 | thrice pre- | sented him | 7 a | kingly | crown ; | 
7 7 | Which he did | thrice | 7 re- | fuse. | 7 7 | 7 Was 

this am- | bition 1 | 7 7 | 7 7 | 
7 Yet | Brutus | says | he was am- | bitious ; | 77 | 
7 And | sure, | 7 he | is | 7 an | honorable | man ? | 77 | 

710. 

7 7 | 71 | speak not | 7 to dis- | prove | what | Brutus | 

spoke ; | 
7 But | here | I am to | speak | what I do | know. | 7 7 | 

77 | 
7 You | all did | love him | once ; | 77 | not without | 

cause : | 7 7 | 
What | cause with- | holds you | then, | 7 to | mourn | 

for him? | 77 | 77 | 

■'* See number 510 ; page 51. 



RHETORICAL READING. 109 

O | judgment, | 7 7 | Thou art | fled to | brutish | 

beasts, | 7 7 | 
7 And [ men | 7 have | lost their | reason ! | 7 7 | 7 7 | 

Bear with me : | 
7 7 | 7 My | heart 7 | is in the | coffin | there | 7 with 

| Caesar ; | 
7 7 | And I must | pause 7 | till it | come | back to me. 
| 7 7 | 7 7 j 

711. 

7 But | yesterday, | 7 the | word of | Caesar, | might | 
7 Have | stood a- | gainst the | world ! | 7 7 | now | lies 

he | there, | 
7 7 | 7 And | none | so ] poor ] 7 to | do him | rever- 
ence. | 7 7 [ 7 7 | 

| masters! | 7 7 | If I were dis- | posed to | stir | 

7 Your j hearts and | minds | 7 to | mutiny and | rage,j 

1 should do | Brutus | wrong, | 7 and | Cassius | 7 7 | 

wrong; | 
77 | Who, | 7 you | all | know, | 7are | honorable | isnen. 

| 7 7 | 7 7 | 
71 | will not | do j them | wrong; | 7 7 | 7 7 |~ I | rather 

| choose | 
7 To | wrong the | dead, | 7 to | wrong my- | self | 7 

and [ you, | 
Than I will | wrong | such 7 | honorable | men. | 7 7 | 
77 | 

712. 

7 But | here's a | parchment | 7 with the | seal of | 

Caesar ; | 
7 1 | found it | 7 in his | closet ; | 7 7 | 'Tis his | will : 

| 7 7 | 
Let but the | commons | hear | 7 this | testament, | 77 | 
7 (Which, | pardon me, | 7 I | do not | mean to | read) | 
10 



110 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

7 7 | And they would | go | 7 and | kiss | dead | Cassar's 

| wounds, | 
7 And | dip their | napkins | 7 in his | sacred | blood ; | 
7 7 | Yea | beg a | hair of him | 7 for | memory, | 
7 And | dying, | 7 7 | mention it | within their | wills, | 
7 7 | 7 Be- | queathing it | 7 as a. | rich 7 | legacy, | 
Unto their | issue. | 7 7 | 7 7 | 

613. 

If you have | tears, | 7 pre- | pare to | shed them | 
now. | 7 7 | 7 7 | 
7 You | all do | know | this | mantle : | 7 7 | I remem- 
ber | 
7 The | first | time | ever | Cassar | put it | on ; | 7 7 | 
'Twasona | summer's | evening | 7 in his | tent; | 77 | 
That | day | 7 he | overcame the | Nervii : | 7 7 | 7 7 | 
Look | 7 in | this | place | ran | Cassius' | dagger | 

through ! | 7 7 | 77 | 
See what a | rent | 7 the | envious | Casca | made! | 7 7 

|77| 
Through | this | 7 the | well be- | loved | Brutus | stab- 
bed, | 7 7 | 
7 7 | And as he | plucked his | cursed | steel a- | way | 
7 7 J Mark 7 | how the | blood of | Cassar [ followed it 
| 77 | 77 | 

714. 

This | 7 was the | most un- | kindest | cut of | all ! | 
7 7 | 7 For | when the | noble | Caesar | saw | him | 

stab, | 
7 In | gratitude, | 7 more | strong than | traitor's | arms, | 
Quite | vanquished him : | 77 | then | burst his | mighty 

heart ; | 7 7 | 
And in his | mantle, | 7 7 | muffling up his | face | 7 7 | 
Even at the | base of | Pompey's | statue, | 



RHETORICAL READING. Ill 

7 7 | 7 (Which j all the | while | ran | blood,) | 7 7 | 
great | Caesar | fell. | 77 | 77 | 

O what a | fall | 7 was | there, | 7 my | countrymen ! | 
| 77 | 77 | 

Then | I, | 7 and | you, | 7 and | all of us, | fell | down,| 

Whilst 7 | bloody | treason | flourished | over us. | 77 | 
77 | 

! | now you | weep ; | 7 7 | 7 and I per- | ceive | 7 you 

I feel, | 
7 The | dint of | pity ; | 7 7 | these | 7 are | gracious J 

drops. | 7 7 | 7 7 | 
Kind | souls ; | 7 7 | what | weep you | 7 7 | when you 

but be- | hold | 
7 Our | Caesar's | vesture | wounded ? | 7 7 | 7 7 | Look 

you | here! | 7 7 | 7 7 | 
Here is him- | self, | 7 7 | marr'd | 7 as you | see, | 7 by 
| traitors. | 7 7 | 7 7 | 

715. 

Good | friends, | sweet | friends, | 7 7 | let me not | 
stir you | up | 

7 To | such a | sudden | flood of | mutiny. | 77 | 

7 7 | They that have | done this | deed, | 7 are | honor- 
able : | 

7 7 | What | private | griefs | 7 they | have, | 7 a- | las ! 
| 7 1 | know not, | * 

7 That | made them | do it : | 7 7 | they are | wise, ] 
7 and | honorable, | 

7 And | will 7 | no | doubt, | 7 with | reason | answer 
you. | 77 | 77 | 

716. 

7 I | come not, | friends, [ 7 to | steal away | 7 your | 
hearts; | 77 | 

1 am | no | orator, | 7 as | Brutus is ; | 



112 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

7 7 | But as you | know me | all, | 7 a I plain | blunt | 

man, | 
7 That | love my | friend ; | 7 7 | 7 and | that | they | 

know | full | well | 
7 That | gave me | public | leave [ 7 to | speak of him. 
|77|77| 

717. 
For I have | neither | wit, | 7 nor | words, | 7 nor | 

worth, | 7 7 | 
Action, 1 7 nor | utterance, f 7 nor the | power of | speech, | 
7 To | stir | men's | blood. | 7 7 | 7 I only | speak | 

right | on : | 7 7 | 
7 I | tell you | that | 7 which | you yourselves | 7 do | 

know; | 
7 7 | Show you | sweet | Caesar's | wounds, | 7 7 | poor, | 

| poor | dumb | mouths, | 
7 And | bid | them | speak | for me. | 7 7 | 77 | But 

were | I | Brutus, | 
7 And | Brutus | Antony, | 7 7 | there were an | An- 
tony | 
7 Would | ruffle | up your | spirits, | 7 7 | 7 and | put a 

| tongue | 
7 In | every | wound of | Caesar, | 7 that should | move | 
7 The | stones of | Rome j 7 to j rise in | mutiny. | 
I 77 I 77 I 



The preceding examples, including both poetry and prose, it is 
thought, will be sufficient to explain the principle embraced in this les- 
son, entitled the Measure of Speech. The pupil should endeavor, in 
all his reading exercises, to form the sentences, whether of poetry or 
prose, into measures, for the purpose of reading with facility and with- 
out fatigue. The pauses or rests which occur in the imperfect meas- 
ures, will afford him an opportunity of taking breath at such intervals, 
that, in the words of Dr. Barber, " Reading will cease to be laborious, 
and the sense will be rendered clear, as far as it is dependent on the 
capital point of the distribution of time, or measure. 77 The principle 
explained in this lesson, when well understood, and judicious' y applied, 
will make the pupil acquainted with the nature of all the different kinds 



RHETORICAL READING. 113 

of versification 3 for he will perceive that all the varieties of poetry (or 
verse) are dependent upon the regular succession of the various meas- 
ures of speech.* 



LESSON XXXVI. 



MANNER OF READING POETRY. 

In the last lesson 7 the attention of the pupil was drawn to the mea- 
sure of speech, a subject, which, although it is very important in 
prose, is doubly so in the reading- of poetry or verse, as it determines a 
question which has long been debated by teachers of the art of Reading, 
viz. whether a pause should be made at the end of every line. 

It is maintained by a very respectable writer, that in reading l blzrik 
verse/ " we ought to make every line sensible to the ear ; for what" 
(it is asked by the same writer) " is the use of the melody, or for what 
end has the poet composed in verse, if in reading his lines, we suppress 
his numbers, by omitting the final pause ; and degrade them by our 
pronunciation into mere prose V 1 

The remarks made in the previous lesson are a sufficient reply to this 
question. It is there stated that all sentences that are or can be read 
or pronounced, are divisible into measures, and that the only difference 
there is in sound between prose and verse, is that verse consists of a 
regular succession of similar measures, while in prose the different kinds 
of measure occur promiscuously, without any regular succession. Now 
if this be the case, as it undoubtedly is, there will be no necessity of a 
pause at the end of the line, to render the melody sensible to the ear. 
Indeed, it will be impossible for the reader, who pays proper attention 
to the measures into which all poetical lines are divided, to conceal the 
melodj' which the lines possess. The art of the poet, so far as the har- 
mony is concerned, consists in such an arrangement of his measures, as 
to leave little for the reader to do, in order to convey the melody to the 
hearer ; and those lines which require ' humoring/ in order that the mu- 
sic of the versification may be distinguished, have little title to the name 
of poetry 

The only direction, therefore, which it is necessary to 
give the pupil in reading verse is, to endeavor to forget, 
or rather, to disregard the division of the sentences into 

* A greater variety of exercises for reading, divided into measures, 
may be found in Dr. Barber's Grammar of Elocution. 

They, who have any curiosity to know the manner in which Garrick 
pronounced Hamlet's Soliloquy on Death, are referred to Steele's Pro- 
sodia Rationalis, (edition of 1779, p. 40. et seq.) where it is divided 
into measures, and accented. Dr. Barber's method of dividing speech 
is identical with Mr. Steele's. 

*10 



114 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

lines, and to read with the same inflections, accent, tone, 
emphasis, and expression, that he would use in reading 
prose. 

In addition to the remarks which were made in the last 
lesson ill relation to the pauses caused by imperfect meas- 
ures of speech, it remains to be observed that there is 
generally a pause, which belongs exclusively to poetry, 
called the Caesura,* or the Coesural pause. This pause 
must always be properly regarded ; and in studying a 
reading lesson in verse, the pupil must be careful to as- 
certain where this pause belongs. It is generally made 
after the fourth, fifth, or sixth syllable in the line; but it 
is sometimes found after the third or the seventh, and oc- 
casionally even after the second or the eighth. 

In the following lines,' the place where the Caesura, or 
the Cassural pause is to be made, is indicated by a figure, 
and the parallel lines || ; and in reading them, the pupil 
will remember to make a slight pause when he comes to 
the figure. 

718. 

The CfBsura after the <lth syllable. 

The Savior comes 4 || by ancient bards foretold. 

719. 

The Ccesura after the 5th syllabic. 

From storms a shelter, 5 || and from heat a shade. 

720. 

The Ccesura after the 6th syllable. 

Exalt thy lofty head, 6 || and lift thine eyes 

721. 

The Ccesura after the 3d syllable. 

Exploring, 3 || till they find their native deep. 



*The word Caesura means a cut, or division. An attentive observer 
will not fail to notice that the beauty and grace of English versification 
depends much upon the situation of the Caesura. The poet has it in bis 
power, by diversifying its position, to give his numbers a grateful vari- 
ety which they would not otherwise possess. Those who would see 
this subject more fully discussed, will find some valuable remarks in the 
work of Dr. Carey, entitled " Practical English Prosody." London 
ed. 1816. p. 59. 



RHETORICAL READING. 115 

722. 

The Ccesura after the 1th syllable. , 
Within that mystic circle 7 || safety seek. 

723. 

The Ccesura after the 2d syllable. 
Happy, 2 || without the privilege of will. 

724. 

The Ccesura after the eighth syllable. 
In different individuals 8 || we find. 

In some lines, besides the caesura, there is also what is 
called the demi-ccesura, or half caesura, at which the pause 
is very slight, as in the following lines, in which the 
demi-caesura is marked with a single accent, and the 
caesura with a double accent. 

725. 

Warms' in the sun" refreshes' in the breeze, 
Glows 'In the stars " and blossoms' in the trees ; 
Lives ' through all life " ; extends ' through all extent, 
Spreads' undivided/' operates' unspent. 

The pupil will recollect that no pause must be made, and 
especially that the falling inflection of the voice must not 
be used at the end of the line, unless the sense requires it. 
In the following extract, the pause with the falling inflec- 
tion occurs in that part of the line indicated by the grave 
accent. The extract is from the description of the Deluge 
in Paradise Lost. 

726. 

Meanwhile the south wind rose, and with black wings 
Wide hovering, all the clouds together drove 
From under heaven : the hills, to their supply, 
Vapor and exhalation dusk and moist 
Sent up amain : and now the thickened sky 
Like a dark ceiling stood ; down rushed the rain 
Impetuous, and continued, till the earth 



' i 



116 



PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



No more was seen ; the floating vessel swam 
Uplifted, and secure with beaked prow 
Rode tilting o'er the waves. 

A simile* or comparison, in poetry , should be slurred ;t 
that is, it should be read in a lower tone of voice, with less 
force and more rapidly. 

In the following lines the simile is contained in Italic 
letters. 

727. 

Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep ! 
He, like the world, his ready visits p*ys 
Where fortune smiles ; the wretched he forsakes ; 
Swift on his downy pinions, fires from grief, 
And lights on lids unsullied with a tear. 

728. . 

Dear is that shed to which his soul conforms ; 
And dear that hill which Jifts him from the storms ; 
And, as a child whom scaring sounds molest, 
Clings close and closer to his mother's breast ; 
So the loud torrent, and the whirlwind's roar, 
But bind him to his native mountains more. 

729. 

The skies, like a banner in sunset unrolled } 
O'er the west threw their splendor of azure and gold ; 
But one cloud at a distance rose dense, and increased 
Till its margin of black touched the zenith and east. 

730. 

Like a spirit, it came in the van of a storm ! 
And the eye, and the heart, hailed its beautiful form, 
For it looked not severe, like an angel of wrath, 
But its garment of brightness illumed its dark path. 



*See Parker's Exercises in English Composition; Lesson 30, p. 56, 
for an explanation of Simile, or Comparison. 

fSee Lesson 34, p. 88, of this volume, for an explanation of the slur. 



RHETORICAL READING. 117 

731. 

So live, that when thy summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan, that moves 
To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon ; but sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his conch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. 

The word verse properly means a turning, and for this reason each 
line in poetry is a verse. The divisions of a poem, whether they con- 
sist of four, six, or any other number of verses or lines, are called 
stanzas. The pupil must be careful not to pause at the end of a stanza, 
unless the sense is completed. The following are instances in which, 
as the sense is not completed, the voice must not be suspended at the 
end of the stanza. 

732. 

Oh what is human glory, human pride ! 
What are man's triumphs when they brightest seem i 
What art thou, mighty one ! though deified ? 
Methusaleh's long pilgrimage, a dream ; 
Our age is but a shade, our life a tale, 
A vacant fancy, or a passing gale 

Or nothing ! 'Tis a heavy, hollow ball, 

Suspended on a slender, subtile hair, 

And filled with storm winds, thunders, passions, all 

Struggling within in furious tumult there. 

Strange mystery ! man's gentlest breath can shake it, 

And the light zephyrs are enough to break it. 

733. 

Beneath the aged oak he sleeps ; — 
The angel of his childhood there 
No watch around his tomb-stone keeps ; 
But, when the evening stars appear, 

The woodman, to his cottage bound, 
Close to that grave is wont to tread : 
But his rude footsteps echoed round, 
Break not the silence of the dead. 



118 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

734. 

The applause of listening senates to command, 
The threats of pain and ruin to despise, 

To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, 

And read their history in a nation's eyes, 

Their lot forbade : nor circumscribed alone 

Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined ;- 

Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne, 
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind ! 



LESSON XXXVII. 



MONOTONE. 

Ill the previous parts of this book the pupil has been made acquainted 
with those modifications of the voice called the rising inflection, the 
falling inflection, and the circumflex.* There is another modulation of 
the voice, which from its intimate connection with the reading of poetry 
of a solemn kind, has been reserved for explanation in this place. It is 
called the Monotone, and consists of a degree of sameness of sound, 
or tone, in a number of successive words or syllables. 

It is very seldom the case, that there is a perfect sameness to be ob- 
served in reading any sentence or part of a sentence. But, very little 
variety of tone, or, in other words, a degree of the monotone, is to be 
used in reading either prose or verse, which contains elevated descrip- 
tions or emotions of solemnity, sublimity, or reverence. This monotone 
should generally be a low tone of the voice. Thus, in addressing the 
Deity, in the following lines, a degree of the monotone is to be used. 

735. 

O Thou Eternal One ! whose presence bright 
All space doth occupy, all motion guide ; 
Unchanged through time's all devastating flight ; 
Thou only God ! There is no God beside ! 
Being above all beings ! Mighty One ! 
Whom none can comprehend and none explore ; 
Who fill'st existence with Thyself alone : 
Embracing all, — supporting, — ruling o'er — 
Being whom we callGod — and know no more. 

* See Lessons 1st, 2nd, and 22nd. 






RHETORICAL READING. , 119 

The monotone is also to be used in the following extracts. 

736. 

High on a throne of royal state, which far 
Outshone the wealth of Orraus or of Ind; 
Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand, 
Showers, on her kings barbaric, pearl and gold, 
Satan exalted sat. 

737. 

The sky is changed ! and such a change ! Oh Night, 
And Storm, and Darkness, ye are wondrous strong, 
Yet lovely in your strength, as is the light 
Of a dark eye in woman ! Far along, 
From peak to peak, the rattling crags among, 
Leaps the live thunder ! — not from one lone cloud, 
But every mountain now hath found a tongue ; 
And Jura answers, through her misty shroud, 
Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud ! 

73S. 

And this is in the night: — most glorious night ! 

Thou wert not made for slumber ! let me be 

A sharer in thy fierce and fair delight, — 

A portion of the tempest and of thee ! 

How the lit lake shines, — a phosphoric sea — 

And the big rain comes dancing to the earth ! 

And now again 'tis black — and now, the glee 

Of the loud hills shakes with its mountain mirth, 

As if they did rejoice o'er a young earthquake's birth. 

739. 

Sky, mountains, river, winds, lake, lightnings! ye, 

With night, and clouds, and thunder, and a soul 

To make these felt and feeling, well may be 

Things that have made me watchful : the far roll 

Of your departing voices is the knoll 

Of what in me is sleepless, — if I rest. 

But where, of ye, O tempests ! is the goal 1 

Are ye like those within the human breast? 

Or do ye find, at length, like eagles, some high nest ? 



120 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

740. 

And in the bright blaze of thy festal hall, 
When vassals kneel, and kindred smile around thee, 
May ruin'd Bertram's Pledge hiss in thine ear — 
Joy to the proud dame of Saint Aldobrand, 
Whilst his corse doth bleach beneath her towers ! 

741. 

Oh, crested Lochiel, the peerless in might, 
Whose banners arise on the battlements height, 
Heaven's fire is around thee, to blast and to burn ! 

742. 

O when he comes, 
Rous'd by the cry of wickedness extreme 
To heaven ascending from some guilty land, 
Now ripe for vengeance ; when he comes, array'd 
In all the terrors of Almighty wrath, — 
Forth from his bosom plucks his lingering arm, 
And on the miscreants pours destruction down, 
Who can abide his coming 1 Who can bear 
His whole displeasure? 

The monotone may with good effect be introduced in many of the 
sentences contained in the previous pages of this book, especially in 
numbers 581 and 582, pages 75 and 76. As it is the design of the 
author, in these pages, to furnish lessons,* rather than exercises in read- 
ing, the extracts already introduced will be sufficient to impress the 
principle contained in this lesson. 



LESSON XXXVIII. 



ANALYSIS. 

The word Analysis* means the separation of the parts 
of which a thing is composed. 

* See Preface, page 3. 

f See Parker's Exercises in English Composition, page 23. 



RHETORICAL READING. 121 

Every sentence, whether it be a long or a short one, contains one 
prominent idea, which by a proper management of the voice, must be 
brought out into clear and distinct notice. It sometimes happens, es- 
pecially in very long sentences, that the prominent idea is interrupted, 
or obscured by parentheses, descriptions, explanatory remarks, or other 
expressions, which render it difficult for the reader to distinguish the 
most important part, and give it that prominence which it deserves. 
Herein lies the greatest difficulty in the art of reading. No rule can be 
given to aid the pupil in the discovery of the prominent ideas in his 
reading lessons. He must here be left to study and reflection. The in- 
formation, however, that there are such prominent ideas in complex 
sentences, will lead him to endeavor to discover them ; and the practice 
which he has had in the use of emphasis, slur, expression, and other 
principles contained in the preceding lessons, will enable him to apply 
himself to the study of such sentences, with the hope of distinguishing 
the parts which should be brought into strong light, from those which 
require to be thrown into the shade.' 

To aid him in the study, a few examples are here introduced. 

743. 

The rivulet sends forth glad sounds, and tripping o'er 
its bed of pebbly sands, or leaping down the rocks, 
seems with continuous laughter to rejoice in its own be- 
ing. 

In this sentence, one principal idea is expressed, namely, that the riv- 
ulet sends forth glad sounds, and seems to rejoice in its own being. 
This idea must therefore be brought out prominently ; while the expres- 
sions, tripping o'er its bed of pebbly sands, and leaping down the rocks, 
are merely descriptions of the appearance of the river, and need not be 
so emphatically marked. The same remark must be made with regard 
to the expression, with continuous laughter, which is only an explanation 
of the manner in which it rejoices. These expressions may be slightly 
slurred.* 

In reading the sentence therefore, he will express it as follows, pro- 
nouncing the parts in Italic letters with less emphatic force than the 
prominent idea. 

744. 

The rivulet sends forth glad sounds, and tripping o'er 
its bed of pebbly sands, or leaping down the rocks seems 
with continuous laughter to rejoice in its own being.f 



*See Lesson 34. 

fThis sentence occurs on the 90th page, where it is differeatly 
marked. It is here used for illustration only. Some readers may pre- 
fer one method, and some another, for there are probably few who 
would read any passage in exactly the same manner. 

11 



122 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

In the following sentences, all the parts, except the prominent ideas, 
are printed in Italic letters. The pupil will read them as directed 
above. 

745. 

There was a delicious sensation of mingled security and 
awe, with which I looked down from my giddy height on 
the monsters of the deep at their uncouth gambols. 
Shoals of porpoises tumbling about the boics of the ship; 
the grampus slowly heaving his huge form above the sur- 
face ; or the ravenous shark, darling like a spectre through 
the blue waters. 

In order that the pupil may clearly distinguish the prominent parts of 
the following sentences, he may first read them with the omission of the 
parts in Italic letters, and afterwards read the whole of each sentence 
as it stands. 

746. 

The devout heart, penetrated with large and affecting 
views of the immensity of the works of God, the harmony 
of his laws, and the extent of his beneficence, bursts into 
loud and vocal expressions of praise and adoration; and 
from a full and overflowing sensibility , seeks to expand 
itself to the utmost limits of creation. 



In the following sentence the pupil may read, first, that onty which is 
in capital letters; then all but the Italic ; and, thirdly, the whole sen- 
tence. He will thus distinguish the various parts of a complex sen- 
tence, 

747. 

CAN HE, who, not satisfied with the wide range of 
animated existence, calls for the sympathy of the inanimate 
creation, REFUSE TO WORSHIP with his fellow- 
men 1 

It may here be remarked, that the most prominent part sometimes 
consists of a single word, or perhaps of several words, which cannot be 
separated from the connection in which they stand, as in the following 
example. 

748. 

Oh, days of ancient GRANDEUR! are ye GONE? 
Forever GONE 1 Do these same scenes behold his OFF- 
SPRING here the HIRELING of a FOE? Oh that I 



r 



RHETORICAL READING. 123 

KNEW my FATE ! that I could READ the destiny that 
heaven has marked for me ! 

749. 

WHENCE, and WHAT art thou, EXECRABLE shape ! 

That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance 

Thy miscreated front athwart my way 

To yonder gates? THROUGH THEM I mean to 

PASS, 
That be assured, without leave asked of thee : 
RETIRE, or taste thy FOLLY; and learn by PROOF, 
Hell-born ! not to contend with spirits of heaven ! 

750. 

What means this SHOUTING 1 I do fear, the people 

Choose Caesar for their KING. 

Ay, do you FEAR it? 

Then mast I think you WOULD NOT HAVE it so. 

I would NOT, Cassius ; yet I LOVE him well. 

751. 

And thus, in silent waiting, stood 
The piles of stone, and piles of wood ; 
Till DEATH, who in his vast affairs 
Ne'er puts things off — as men in theirs; 
And thus, if I the truth must tell, 
Does his work finally and well — 
WINKED at our hero as he past, 
"Your house is finished, Sir, at last; 
A narrower house — a house of clay— 
Your palace for another day !" 

In the analysis of a sentence, with the view to read it correctly, 
there are generally three things to be considered by the pupil ; 
namely : First, What are the ?nost prominent parts, or those which re- 
quire emphasis — Secondly, What parts are merely explanatory, and con- 
sequently are to be slurred or thrown into shade — Thirdly, What parts, 
separated by explanatory, descriptive, or other circumstances , are inti- 
mately connected with each other, and must have their intimate connexion 
expressed, by strong emplxasis, or by slurring the parts which separate 
them. 

The pupil may analyze the following sentences; that is to say, he 
may mark and read those parts or words only, which are most promi* 
Rent, and require strong emphasis. He may then mention what parts 
axe merely explanatory, &c. And then he may point out those parts 



124 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

■which, though distant from the eye, are closely connected in sense. 
Lastly, he may read each sentence as it stands, endeavoring to manage- 
the emphasis, slur, and expression, in the manner in which he has here- 
tofore been directed. 

752. 

How reverend is the face of this tall pile, 
Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads, 
To bear aloft its arch'd* and ponderous roof, 
By its own weight made steadfast and immoveable, 
Looking tranquillity ! It strikes an awe 
And terroi on my aching sight: the tombs 
And monumental caves of death look cold, 
And shoot a chillness to my trembling heart. 

753. 

Oh winter ! ruler of the inverted year ! 

Thy scattered hair with sleet, like ashes, filled, 

Thy breath congealed upon thy lips, thy cheeks 

Fringed with a beard made white with other snows 

Than those of age, thy forehead wrapt in clouds, 

A leafless branch thy sceptre, and thy throne 

A sliding car, indebted to no wheels, 

But urged by storms along its slippery way, 

I love thee, all unlovely as thou seem'st* 

And dreaded as thou art. 

754. 

Slaves cannot breathe in England ; if their lungs 
Receive our air, that moment they are free : 
They touch our country, and their shackles fall. 
That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud 
And jealous of the blessing. Spread it then, 
And let it circulate through every vein 
Of all your empire ; that where Britain's power 
Is felt, mankind may feel her mercy too. 



*The pupil will often notice in poetry such an abbreviation as this, 
where the apostrophe shows that some letter is left out. [See Lesson 
20, page 44] Thus arch'd for arched, slipp'ry for slippery, seem'st for 
seemest. These abbreviations are generally made for the purpose of 
shortening the word, and thereby preserving the measure of the verse* 
But they are very seldom allowed in prose. 



RHETORICAL READING. 125 



755. 



Trifles, light as air, 
Are to the jealous, confirmations strong 
As proofs of holy writ. 

Dangerous conceits are, in their natures, poisons, 
Which, at the first, are scarce found to distaste, 
But, with a little act upon the blood 
Burn like the mines of sulphur. 

756. 

I come no more to make you laugh ; things now, 
That bear a weighty and a serious brow, 
Sad, high, and working, full of state and woe, 
Such noble scenes, as draw the eye to flow, 
We now present. Those, that can pity, here, 
May, if they think it well, let fall a tear, 
The subject will deserve it. 

'757.. 

Thou hast it now, King, Cawdor, Glamis, all, 
As the weird women promised ; and I fear, 
Thou play'dst most foully for it : yet it was said, 
It should not stand in thy, posterity ; 
But that myself should be the root, and father 
Of many kings. If there come truth from them, 
(As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine,) 
Why, by the verities made good, 
May they not be my oracles as well, 
And set me up in hope. 

758. 
Lochiel, Lochiel, beware of the day, 
For dark and despairing, my sight 1 may seal, 
But man cannot cover what God would reveal. 
*Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, 
And coming events cast their shadows before. 
I tell thee, Culloden's dread echoes shall ring 
With the blood-hounds that bark for thy fugitive king. 

759, 
Lo ! anointed by heaven with the vials of wrath, 
Behold, where he flies on his desolate path! 
*11 



126 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

Now in darkness and billows he sweeps from my sight: 
Rise ! rise ! ye wild tempests and cover his flight ! 
'Tis finished. Their thunders are hushed on the moors, 
Culloden is lost, and my country deplores. 

760. 

Impose upon me whatever hardships you please , give 
me nothing but the bread of sorrow to eat ; take from me 
the friends in whom I had placed my confidence ; lay me 
in the cold hut of poverty, and on the thorny bed of dis- 
ease ; set death before me in all its terrors ; do all this, — 
only let me trust in my Savior, and I will fear no evil, — 
I will rise superior to affliction, — I will rejoice in my trib- 
ulation. 

761. 

The Highlands of Scotland are a picturesque, but in 
general a melancholy country. Long tracts of mountain- 
ous desert covered with dark heath, and often obscured by 
misty weather ; narrow valleys, thinly inhabited, and 
bounded by precipices resounding with the fall of torrents; 
a soil so rugged, and a clime so dreary, as in many parts 
to admit neither the amusements of pasturage, nor the 
labors of agriculture; the mournful dashing of waves 
along the friths and lakes that intersect the country; the 
portentous noises which every change of the wind, and 
every increase and diminution of the waters is apt to 
raise in a lonely region, full of echoes, and rocks, and 
caverns ; the grotesque and ghastly appearance of such a 
landscape by the light of the moon ; objects like these 
diffuse a gloom over the fancy, which may be compatible 
enough with occasional and social merriment, but cannot 
fail to tincture the thoughts even of an ordinary native 
in the hour of silence and solitude. 

762.* 

To be — or not to be- — that is the question — 
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind, to suffer 
The stings and arrows of outrageous fortune ; 

* Jn reading- this extract, the pupil must recall to mind the remarks 
made on the 49th page, relating- to accent* 



RHETORICAL READING. 127 

Or to take arms against assail* of troubles, 

And, by opposing, end them? — To die, — to sleep, — 

No more ; and, by a sleep, to say we end 

The heait ache, and the thousand natural shocks 

That flesh is heir to, — 'tis a consummation 

Devoutly to be wished. 

763. 

To die; — to sleep ; — 
To sleep ! perchance to dream ; — ay there's the rub ; 
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, 
When, we have shuffled off this mortal coil, 
Must give us pause : There's the respect., 
That makes calamity of so long life : 
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, 
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, 
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, 
The insolence of office, and the spurns 
That patient merit of the unworthy takes, 
When he himself might his quietus make 
With a bare bodkin 1 Who would fardels bear, 
To grunt and sweat under a weary life ; 
But that the dread of something after death, — 
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn 
No traveller returns, — puzzles the will ; 
And makes us rather bear those ills we have, 
Than fly to others that we know not of? 

764. 

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, 
And thus the native hue of resolution 
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought ; 
And enterprises of great pith and moment, 
With this regard, their currents turn awry, 
And lose the name of action. 



* In most of the editions of Shakspeare we read, " to take arms 
against a sea of trouble ;" but this expression is a manifest violation of 
all rhetorical rule. [See Progressive Exercises in English Composition, 
Lesson 25, p. 49.] The improved reading in this passage is taken 
from Steele's " Prosodia Rationalis," a work already referred 10 in a 
preceding note. 



.128 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



LESSON XXXIX. 



BLENDING OF WORDS PRODUCED BY ACCENTED FORCE. 

Under the head of accented force, Mr. Walker, in his 
Rhetorical Grammar, has noticed the peculiar manner in 
which words, or parts of different words, are sometimes 
blended so as to appear in pronunciation like a single 
word. Thus the sentence, "Censure is the tax a man 
pays to the public for being eminent," when it is read 
with a proper regard to the measure of speech, accent, 
emphasis, &,c. } will appear as if it were written thus: 

765. 

Censure isthetax amanpays tothepublic 

forbeingeminent. 

It will be needless to insert any extracts for the exer- 
cise of the pupil in this principle. The teacher will se- 
lect from any part of the book such sentences for him to 
read as will enable him readily to perceive the difference 
between accented words and accented syllables. 

It may here be remarked, that most kinds of reading- are included in 
the three terms, Narrative, Descriptive, and Expressive; each 
of which is respectively characterized by its appropriate degree of ac- 
cented force ; and it is proper that the pupil, in studying a reading les- 
son, should endeavor to discern under which head his lesson is included, 
in order to adapt his style of reading to the character of the piece. On 
this subject much has been said in the previous lessons of this book. 
It remains for the pupil, who has gone through these lessons in course, 
lo endeavor to apply the instructions given him, in all the various kinds 
of reading in which he may be exercised. If he has a correct ear, he 
will not fail to observe that both the rising and falling inflections of the 
voice admit of different degrees. These are technically described in 
Dr. Barber's Grammar of Elocution, and more fully developed in the 
respective works of Dr. Rush and Mr, Steele, to which reference has al- 
ready been made. The subject is also particularly noticed in Walker's 
Rhetorical Grammar. In these Exercises, which are designed for com- 
mon schools, it is deemed inexpedient to present any intricate views of 
the subject ; but, after the statement of a principle, to leave the pupil 
to the guidance of Nature. [See preface and title page.} 



RHETORICAL READING. 



129 



LESSON XL. 



IMPROVEMENT OF THE VOICE. 



The voice, like all the other faculties of the body or 
the mind, is susceptible of great improvement; and under 
proper management, one that is naturally feeble may be 
rendered more effective than another, which is endowed 
with great strength. The two most rmportant requisites 
in a good voice are clearness and strength. In the 
twenty-fifth lesson of this book, some exercises are pre- 
sented with the design to accustom the pupil to distinct 
articulation. If he has passed over that lesson with little 
attention, he is advised to return to it; and, by persever- 
ing practice, acquire a facility in the pronunciation of 
those sounds which are represented by the combination of 
the consonants alone. In connexion with this exercise, 
he is advised to practise the vowel sounds, in the manner 
which shall presently be pointed out. 

The sounds of the Vowels are as follows : 



a as hean 


I in the word fate 





as heard 


in the word 


move 


a ' 


t a 


a it t 


' far 


o 


a tt 


u a a 


nor 


a ' 


i a 


tt tt t 


« fall 


o 


a tt 


a a tt 


not 


a ' 


t a 


a a t 


fat 


u 


it it 


it tt it 


tube 


e ' 


t ti 


tt tt t 


' me 


u 


tt tt 


ti it it 


tub 


e ' 


t tt 


tt it t 


1 met 


u 


tt tt 


tt tt tt 


bull 


i ' 


t tt 


tt tt t 


* pine 


oi 


it it 


a a u 


voice 


i * 


t tt 


tt tt t 


* pin 


ou 


a n 


a tt a 


sound 


o ' 


t tt 


tt tt i 


' no 














The soun 


ds of the C07 


isonants are as 


follows : 




b 


as in 


bible 


rob 


t 


as in 


tool 


not 


d 


a a 


dare 


bed 


V 


a tt 


vine 


have 


f 


it it 


fate 


brief 


w 


a- a 


wine 




S 


a it 


gone 


brag 


X 


it it 


example 




h 


a tt 


hand 




y 


tt tt 


yes 




J 


a tt 


jade 




z 


it it 


zone 


adz 


k 


a tt 


kind 


sick 


ch 


n it 


chair 


church 


1 


it u 


land 


ball 


a g 


it tt 


long 




m 


a it 


mine 


him 


sh 


tt tt 


shine 


hush 


n 


tt it 


now- 


pin 


th 


a a 


thou 




P 


tt it 


put 


lip 


th 


aspirate, 


thine 




q 


tt tt 


quince 




wh 


a a 


when 




r 


a tt 


ring 


bar 


zh 


<( <( 


azure 




s 


a t< 


since 


kiss 











130 



PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



These sounds of the vowels and consonants should be 
uttered in various ways. 

1st. Let the pupil practise what is called exploding* 
them ; that is, let him pronounce each of them in a quick, 
sudden manner, like the report of a pistol. 

2d. Let him prolong the same sounds, with care, to 
preserve their purity. 

3d. Let him practise both the abrupt and the prolonged 
sounds of each, in conjunction with the consonants, and 
the combination of the consonants presented in Lesson 25. 

4ih. Let him practise all the above mentioned sounds, 
in each of the different pitches or keys of the voice, men- 
tioned in Lesson 27, p. 69; and likewise in a whisper. t 

Among the consonants there are two which require 
particular attention, namely, I and r ; and if there are 



* u This practise," says Dr. Barber, " will be found a more effectual 
method than any other of obtaining a strong- and powerful voice — of 
strengthening such voices as are feeble, and of giving fulness and 
strength of tone to all in proportion to their natural capacities." He 
adds immediately after, " The student has not obtained that use of his 
voice which it is the object of this table to teach him, until every sound 
it contains can be uttered vviih the suddenness of the report of fire-arms, 
without any apparent effort preceding the explosion, with a very high 
degree of percussive force, and with strength and fulness of tone." 
Again, he says in another place, " We know that persons with feeble 
voices have been rendered capable of speaking forcibly and impres- 
sively in public, by a perseverance in the practice here recommended." 
— Gram, of Elocution, p. 30. Dr. Barber's work cannot be too highly 
recommended to all who would pursue this subject scientifically. In this 
lesson the author has departed in some respects from the arrangement of 
the vowel sounds, as presented in the tables of Dr. Barber, and adopted 
that which is contained in the spelling books commonly used. These 
lessons are designed principally as an introduction to the subject; and 
not as a full treatise. Those who have leisure for a more extended 
view, are referred to Dr. Barber's Grammar, and to the very able, sci- 
entific, and more voluminous work to which reference has been already 
made, Dr. Rush on " The Philosophy of the human voice." Mr. Steele's 
work entitled " Prosodia Rationalis," is likewise well worthy the atten- 
tion of those, who would acquire a thorough knowledge of the powers 
and peculiarities of the human voice. 

f The importance of clear and distinct utterance will be seen by the 
following sentences in which the meaning depends upon it : 

That lasts till night. 

That last still night. 
Who ever imagined such a notion to exist ? 
Who ever imagined such an ocean to exist ? 



RHETORICAL READING. 131 

any letters, the correct and distinct articulation of which 
distinguish a good from a bad pronunciation, they are 
these two. 

It is recommended that the pupil be thoroughly exer- 
cised in the pronunciation of words which contain these 
letters, especially the r. This letter has two sounds 
called the smooth and the vibrant. The vibrant r is pro- 
nounced by what is frequently called rolling the tongue. 
This sound, when properly made, is one which is highly 
pleasing to the ear ; but when too much prolonged it 
becomes harsh and offensive, and is suited only for a 
rough or energetic utterance. Dr. Rush says that it 
"will be agreeable when it consists of one, or at most 
two or three strokes and rebounds of the tongue." 

The smooth r is that sound which is heard in the words 
bard, card, hard. In such words it savors of affectation 
or provincialism to substitute the vibrant r. 

EXERCISE ON THE SOUNDS OF I AND r. 

766. 
The lordly lion leaves his lonely lair. 

767. 
He was long, lean, and lank, and laughed loudly. 

768. 
How sweetly slow the liquid lay 
In holy hallelujahs rose. 

769. 

Let lords and ladies laugh and sing 
As loudly and as light ; 
We beggars too can dance and fling 
Dull care a distant flight. 

770. 
Ruin seize thee ruthless king. 

771. 
Around the hearth the crackling faggots blaze. 

772. 
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, 
The armed rhinoceros, the Hyrcan tiger. 



13*2 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES. 

773. 

The master current of her mind, 
Ran permanent and free. 

After the pupil has sufficiently practised the utterance 
of the various sounds of vowels and consonants, both sep- 
arately, and in combination, it is recommended that he 
daily exercise himself in reading or speaking with all his 
powers of loudness and force. This habit will contribute 
much to the acquisition of strength of voice. But above 
all let him remember that distinctness of articulation is of 
the utmost importance in utterance; and that a weak voice 
with this quality can be heard and understood at a much 
greater distance than a strong one without it. 

Again ; the pupil will find much benefit in the practice 
of swelling and diminishing the power of his voice. For 
this purpose let him begin a long sentence softly, slowly, 
and in a low tone, and gradually swell his voice in pitch, 
power and rapidity, till he has attained the utmost extent 
of those qualities of which it is susceptible; and then let it 
descend and fade away by degrees till it becomes almost 
imperceptible. 

And, lastly, reading with rapidity, {simply as an exer- 
cise of the voice,) will contribute much to the ease and 
power of utterance. But. the pupil must never allow his 
words to pass from his mouth indistinctly. How rapidly 
soever he may read, as an exercise, he must be careful to 
give each syllable and each letter its distinct appropriate 
sound. 

To these directions for the improvement of the voice, 
may be added the caution, to open the mouth when speak- 
ing, in such a manner as to afford an easy passage for the 
sound. Many persons have contracted a habit of reading 
and speaking with the l.ps compressed in such a manner 
as entirely to alter the tone of the voice and destroy its 
distinctness of utterance. This caution must be particu- 
larly regarded by all who aim at excellence in the Art 
of Reading. 

Dr. Rush has described four different kinds of voice ; 
namely, the Natural, the Falsette, the Whispering, 
and the Orotund, which he thus describes : 

The Natural voice is that which we employ in ordi- 
nary speaking. 



RHETORICAL READING. 133 

The Falsette is that peculiar voice in which the 
higher degrees of pitch are made, after the natural voice 
breaks, or outruns its power. The cry, scream, yell, and 
all shrillness, are various modes of the falsette. 

The Whispering voice needs no description ; but it 
may be observed that some persons are endowed with 
such clearness and distinctness in this kind of voice, that 
they can make themselves heard at a great distance when 
speaking in this way. 

By the Orotund voice is meant that natural or im- 
proved manner of uttering the elements, which exhibits 
them with a fulness, clearness, strength, smoothness, and 
a ringing or musical quality, rarely heard in ordinary 
speech ; but which is never found in its highest excellence, 
except through long and careful cultivation. 

In conclusion, it may be stated, that all who aim at 
excellence as Readers and Speakers, should endeavor to 
attain this last described quality of voice. For their en- 
couragement it may be added, that it has frequently been 
acquired by those whose voices were naturally weak and 
ineffective — and that no one, therefore, should despair of 
the attainment: — for what man has done, man can do. 



12 



134 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



EXERCISES FOR READING 



EULOGIUM ON SHAKSPEARE. 

774. Shakspeare, is, in truth, an author, whose mimic 
creation, agrees, in general, so perfectly with that of na- 
ture, that it is not only wonderful in the great, but, opens 
another scene of amazement, to the discoveries of the mi- 
croscope. We have been charged, indeed, by a foreign 
writer, (Voltaire,) with an over much-admiring of this 
Barbarian. Whether we have admired, with knowledge, 
or f have blindly followed those feelings of affection, which 
we could not resist, I cannot tell; but, certain it is, that, 
to the labors of his editors, he has not been overmuch 
obliged. 

775. They are however, for the most part, of the first 
rank in literary fame ; but, some of them had possessions 
of their own in Parnassus, of an extent, too great, and im- 
portant, to allow of a very diligent attention, to the inter- 
ests of others; and, among those critics, more profession- 
ally so, the ablest, and the best, has, unfortunately, looked 
more to the praise of ingenious, than of just conjecture. 

776. Yet, whatever may be the neglect of some, or the 
censure of others, there are those, who firmly believe, that 
this wild, this uncultivated barbarian, has not yet obtained 
one half of his fame ; and, who trust, that some new Sta- 
gyrite will arise, who, instead of pecking at the surface of 
things, will enter into the inward soul of his compositions, 
and expel, by the force of congenial feelings, those foreign 
impurities, which have stained and disgraced his page. 

777. And, as to those spots, which will still remain, 
they may, perhaps, become invisible to those, who shall 
seek them through the medium of his beauties, instead of 
looking for those beauties, — as is too frequently done, — 
through the smoke of some real, or, imputed obscurity. 
When the hand of time, shall have swept off his present 
editors, and commentators, and, when the very name of 



r 



RHETORICAL READING. 135 

Voltaire, and, even the memory of the language in which 
he has written, shall be no more, the Apalachian moun- 
tains, the banks of the Ohio, and the plains of Sciota, shall 
resound with the accents of this barbarian. 

778. In his native tongue, he shall roll, the genuine 
passions of Nature ; nor, shall the griefs of Lear be alle- 
viated, or, the charms, and wit of Rosalind^ be abated by 
time. There is, indeed, nothing perishable about him, 
except that very learning, which he is said so much to 
want. He had not, it is true, enongh for the demands of 
the age in which he lived, but, he had, perhaps, too much 
for the reach of his genius, and the interest of his fame. 
Milton, and he, will carry the decayed remnants and frip- 
peries of ancient mythology, into more distant ages, than 
they are, by their own force, entitled to extend ; and the 
metamorphoses of Ovid, upheld by them, lay in a new 
claim to unmerited immortality. 

779. Shakspeare is a name, so interesting, that it is 
excusable, to stop a moment; nay, it would be indecent 
to pass him, without the tribute of admiration. He dif- 
fers, essentially, from all other writers, him we may pro- 
fess rather to feel, than to understand ; and it is safer to 
say, on many occasions, that we are possessed by him, 
than that we possess him And no wonder ; — he scatters 
the seeds of things, the principles of character and action, 
with so cunning a hand, yet with so careless an air, and, 
master of our feelings, submits himself so little to our 
judgment, that every thing seems superior. 

780. We discern not his course — we see no connection 
of cause and effect; — we are rapt in ignorant admiration, 
and claim no kindred with his abilities. All the incidents, 
all the parts, look like chance, while we feel and are sen- 
sible, that the whole is design. His characters, not only 
speak and act, in strict conformity to nature, but in strict 
relation to us; just so much is shown, as is requisite, — 
just so much is impressed ; he commands every passage 
to our heads, and to our hearts, and moulds us as he 
pleases , and that, with so much ease, that he never be- 
trays his own exertions. 

781. We see these characters act, from the mingled 
motives of passion, reason, interest, habit, and complex- 
ion, in all their proportions, when they are supposed to 
know it not themselves ; and we are made to acknowledge 



136 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

that their actions and sentiments are, from those motives, 
the necessary result. He, at once, blends and distin- 
guishes every thing; every thing is complicated, every 
thing is plain. 

782. I restrain the further expressions of my admira- 
tion, lest they should not seem applicable to man ; but it 
is really astonishing, that a mere human being, a part of 
humanity only, should so perfectly comprehend the whole; 
and that he should possess such exquisite art, that, whilst 
every woman, and every child, shall feel the whole effect, 
his learned editors and commentators, should yet, so very 
frequently mistake, or seem ignorant of the cause. 

783. A sceptre, or a straw, is, in his hands, of equal 
efficacy ; he needs no selection ; he converts every thing 
into excellence : nothing is too great, nothing is too base. 
Is a character efficient, like Richard ? it is every thing 
we can wish. Is it otherwise, like Hamlet? it is produc- 
tive of equal admiration. Action produces one mode of 
excellence, and inaction another : the chronicle, the novel, 
or the ballad ; the king, or the beggar ; the hero, the mad- 
man, the sot, or the fool ; it is all one : nothing is worse, 
nothing is better. The same genius pervades, and is 
equally admirable, in all. 

784. Or is a character to be shown in progressive 
change, and the events of years comprised within the 
hour? With what a magic hand, does he prepare and 
scatter his spells! The understanding must, in the first 
place, be subdued, and, lo ! how the rooted prejudices of 
the child, spring up to confound the man ! The weird 
sisters rise, and order is extinguished. The laws of 
nature give way, and leave nothing in our minds but 
wildness and horror. 

785. No pause is allowed us for reflection ; horrid sen- 
timent, furious guilt, and compunction, air-drawn daggers, 
murders, ghosts, and enchantment, shake and possess us 
wholly. In the meantime, the process is completed. 
Macbeth changes under our eye; the milk of human 
kindness, is converted into gall: he has "supped full of 
horrors ," and, his " May of life, has fallen into the sear, 
the yellow leaf;" whilst we, the fools of amazement, are 
insensible to the shifting of place, and the lapse of time ; 
and, till the curtain drops, never once wake to the truth of 
things, or recognize the laws of existence. — Morgan. 



r 



RHETORICAL READING. 137 



ALEXANDER'S FEAST. 



786. 

Mart : al Descriptioa. 

s Tvvas at the royal feast for Persia won 
By Philip's warlike son, 

Awe. 

Aloft in awful state, 
The god-like hero sate 
On his imperial throne. 

Admiration. 

His valiant peers were placed around, 

Their brows with roses and with myrtle bound : 

So should desert in arms be crown'd. 

Delight. 

The lovely Thais, by his side, 
Sat like a blooming eastern bride, 
In flower of youth, and beauty's pride. 

Rapture. 

Happy, happy, happy pair ! 
None but the brave, 
None but the brave, 

Triumph. 

None but the brave, deserve the fair. 

787. 

Description. 

Timotheus, placed on high, 

Amid the tuneful choir, . 

With flying fingers touch'd the lyre : 
The trembling notes ascend the sky, 

And heavenly joys inspire. 
The song began from Jove, 
Who left his blissful sent above — 
Such is the power of mighty love! — 

Awe. 

A dragon's fiery form belied the god : 
Sublime on radiant spheres he rode, 
When he to fair Olympia press'd, 
And stamp'd an image of himself, a sovereign of the world. 
The listening crowd admire the lofty sound : 

Surprise increased. 

" A present deity ?" they shout around ; — 
" A present deity 1" the vaulted roofs rebound. 
*12 



138 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 

With ravish'd ears 
The monarch hears, 

Importance. 

Assumes the god, 
Affects to nod, 
And seems to shake the spheres. 

788. 

Jovial description. 

The praise of Bacchus, then the sweet musician sung; 
Of Bacchus ever fair and ever young ! 

The jolly god in triumph comes! 

Sound the trumpets ! beat the drums ! 

Flush'd with a purple grace, 

He shows his honest face. 

Inciting. 

Now give the hautboys breath. — He comes ! he comes ! 
Bacchus, ever fair and young, 
Drinking joys did first ordain. 

Bacchanalian rapture. 

Bacchus' blessings are a treasure ; 
Drinking is the soldier's pleasure. 
Rich the treasure, 
Sweet the pleasure ; 
Sweet is pleasure after pain ! 

7S9. 
Soothed with the sound, the king grew vain ; 
Fought ali his battles o'er again : 

Swelling 

And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew the slain! 

Observing. 

The master saw the madness rise ; 
His glowing cheeks, his ardent eyes : [rapidly) 
And while he heaven and earth defied, 
Changed his hand, and check'd his pride.* 

799. 

Sorrowful. 

He chose a mournful muse, 
Soft pity to infuse : [slowly) 
He sung Darius great and good ! 
By too severe a fate, 



*~There should be a transition in the voice here, as in the strain of 
Timotheus, from heroic to pathetic ; as rapid too. 



r 



RHETORICAL READING. 139 

Fallen ! fallen ! fallen ! fallen !— 
Fallen from his high estate, 
And weltering in his blood ! 

Reproach. 

Deserted at his utmost need 
By those his former bounty fed, 
On the bare earth exposed he lies, 
With not a friend to close his eyes ! 

Reflection. 

With downcast look the joyless victor sate, 
Revolving, in his alter'd soul, 

The various turns of fate below ; 
And now and then a sigh he stole, 

Pity. 

And tears began to flow ! 
791. 

Secret satisfaction. 

The mighty master smiled, to see 

That love was in the next degree : 

'Twas but a kindred sound to move ; 

For pity melts the mind to love, {rapidly, 

Softly sweet, in Lydian measures, changed to 

Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures. lively.) 

Remonstrance. 

War, he sung, is toil and trouble ; 
Honor, but an empty bubble ; 
Never ending, still beginning, 

Fighting still, and still destroying. 

Requesting. 

If the world be worth thy winning, 
Think, oh think it worth enjoying ! 

Admiration. 

Lovely Thais sits beside thee, 

Take the good the gods provide thee. 

Bursts of approbation. 

The many rend the skies with loud applause : 
So love was crown'd ; but music won the cause. 

792. 

The prince, unable to conceal his pain, 

Pensive. 

Gazed on the fair, 
Who caused his care, 

Effeminately. 

And sigh'd and look'd, sigh'd and look'd, 
.Sigh'd and look'd, and sigh'd again : 



140 



PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES IN 



At length, with love and wine at once oppress'd, 
The vanquish'd victor — sunk upon her breast! 

T93. 

Burst of voice.* 

Now strike the golden lyre again ! 

A louder yet, and yet a louder strain! 

Break his bands of sleep asuvder, 

And rouse him like a rattling peal of thunder ! 

Amazement. 

Hark! hark! — the horrid sound 

Has raised up his head, 

As awaked from the dead : 
And, amazed, he stares around. 

794. 

Inciting furiously. 

Revenge! revenge! Timoiheus cries — 

See the furies arise ! 

See the snakes that they rear, 

How they hiss in their hair, 
And the sparkles that flash from their eyes ! (rapidly) 

Behold a ghastly band, 

Each a torch in his hand. 
These are Grecian ghosts, that in battle were slain, 

And, unburied, remain 

Inglorious on the plain. 

Give the vengeance due 

To the valiant crew ! 
Behold ! how they toss their torches on high, 
How they point to the Persian abodes, 
And glittering temples of their hostile gods. 

795. 

Breathless eagerness. 

The princes applaud, with a furious joy ;t 

And the king seized a flambeau, with zeal to destroy ; 

Thais led the way, 

To light him to his prey ! 

Burst. 

And, like another Helen, fired — another Troy. 

*The burst upon '• rouse ; r ' dwelling- on the consonant r, trilled by 
the tongue against the upper gum. 

f The princes — applaud — with a furious — joy; 
And the king — seized a flambeau — with zeal — to destroy, &.c. 



RHETORICAL READING. 141 

796. 

Narrative manner. 

Thus, long ago, 
Ere heaving bellows learned to blow, 
While organs yet were mute, 
Timotheus, to his breathing flute 

And sounding lyre, 
Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire. 

797. 

Pleasure. 

At last, divine Cecilia came, 

Inventress of the vocal frame. 
The sweet enthusiast, from her sacred store, 

Enlarged the former narrow bounds, 

And added length to solemn sounds, 
With nature's mother-wit, and arts unknown before. 

Concluding. 

Let old Timotheus yield the prize, 
Or both divide the crown : 

Awe. 

He raised a mortal to the skies ; 

Delight. 

She drew an angel down. — Dryden, 



OTHELLO'S APOLOGY FOR HIS MARRIAGE. 

Most potent, grave, and reverend seignors : 

My very noble and approv'd good masters : 

That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter, 

It is most true ; true, I have married her : 

The very head and front of my offending 

Hath this extent; no more. Rude am 1 in speech, 

And little bless'd with the set phrase of peace : 

For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith, 

Till now, some nine moons wasted, they have us'd 

Their dearest action in the tented field ; 

And little of this great world can I speak, 

More than pertains to feats of broils and battle : 

And therefore little shall I grace my cause, 

In speaking of myself. Yet by your patience, 

I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver, 

Of my whole course of love, what drugs, what charms, 



142 PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES. 

What conjuration, and what mighty magic, 
(For such proceedings I am charg'd withal,) 
I won his daughter with. 

Her father loved me ; oft invited me ; 
Still questioned me the story of my life 
From year to year : the battles, sieges, fortunes, 
That I had past. 

I ran it through, e'en from my boyish days 
To the very moment that he bade me tell it. 
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances: 
Of moving accidents by flood and field ; 
Of hairbreadth 'se-apes in th' imminent deadly breach ; 
Or being taken by the insolent foe, 
And sold to slavery ; of my redemption thence, 
And with it all my travel's history. 

All these to hear 

Would Desdemona seriously incline : 

But still the house affairs would draw her thence ; 

Which ever as she could with haste despatch, 

She'd come again, and with a greedy ear 

Devour up my discourse. Which I observing, 

Took once a pliant hour, and found good means 

To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart, 

That I would all my pilgrimage dilate ; 

Whereof by parcels she had something heard, 

But not distinctly. I did consent; 

And often did beguile her of her tears, 

When I did speak of some distressful stroke 

That my youth suffered. My story being done, 

She gave me for my pains a world of sighs. 

She swore in faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing strange ; 

'Twas pitiful ; 'twas wondrous pitiful ; 

She wish'd she had not heard it ; yet she wish'd 

That heaven had made her such a man. She thank'd me : 

And bade me, if I had a friend that lov'd her, 

I should but teach him how to tell my story, 

And that would woo her. On this hint I spake ; 

She lov'd me for the dangers I had pass'd ; 

And I lov'd her that she did pity them. 

This only is the witchcraft which I've us'd. — Shakspeare, 

THE END, 



INDEX 



Page. 

LESSON I. The Period, 5 

" II. Interrogation Point 

or Question, with the rising 
inflection of the voice, ... 6 

LESS. III. Interrogation Point 
or Question, with the falling 
inflection of the voice, ... 7 

LESS. IV. Double Question, 
with rising and falling inflec- 
tion, .7 

LESS. V. Double Quest., with 
falling and rising inflection, 8 

LESS. VI. Periods and Ques- 
tions, . . ,9 

LESS. VIT. Exclamation Point, 10 

LESS. VIII. Periods, Ques- 
tions, and Exclamations, . .11 

LESS. IX, Comma, .... 12 
Comma read like a Ques- 
tion, - . ..*_'. . . .13 
Comma read like a Period, 14 
Comma read like an Excla- 
mation, 15 

Comma read without pause 
or inflection, 15 

LESS. X. Pauses sometimes 
made when there are none in 
the book, 16 

LESS. XI. The Semicolon,wilh 
the voice suspended, ... 19 

LESS. XII. The Semicolon, 
with falling inflection of the 
voice, 20 

LESS. XIII. Semicolon read 
as a Question or Exclama- 
tion, 22 

LESS. XIV. The Colon, with 
falling inflection of the voice, 24 



Page. 
LESS. XV. The Colon, with 

voice suspended, . . . .26 
LESS. XVL The Parenthesis, 

Crotchets, and Brackets, . . 28 
LESS. XVII. The Dash, . . 32 
The Dash like a Period, with 

the falling inflection, . . 34 
The Dash like a Comma, with 

suspended voice, . . .35 
The Dash preceding some- 
thing unexpected, . . .36 
The Dash used with other 

pauses to lengthen them, 37 
The Dash read as a Question, 38 
The Dash read as an Excla- 
mation, 39 

LESS. XVIII. The Hyphen, 41 
LESS. XIX. Ellipsis. . . .42 
LESS. XX. The Apostrophe, 

Quotation, and Diaeresis, . . 44 
LESS. XXI. The Asterisk, 
Obelisk, Double Obelisk, Sec- 
tion, Parallels, Paragraph, 
Index, Caret, Breve and 

Brace, 47 

LESS. XXII. The Accents, 
Acute, Grave, and Circum- 
flex, 49 

LESS. XXITI. Emphasis, . . 53 
LKSS. XXIV. Primary and 

Secondary Emphasis, . . : 55 
LESS. XXV. Distinctness of 

Articulation, 58 

Exercises for distinct articu- 
lation, 64 

Difference between distinct 
and indistinct articula- 
tion, 65 



144 



INDEX. 



Page 
LESS. XXVI. Manner, or Ex- 
pression, 66 

LESS. XXVII. Pitch of the 

Voice, 69 

LESS. XXVIII Transition, 71 
LESS. XXIX. Elliptical Sen- 
tences, and the manner of 

reading" them, 74 

LESS. XXX. Antithesis, . . 78 
LESS. XXXI. Enumeration, 80 
LESS. XXXII. Irony, ... 84 
LESS. XXXIII. Analogy, 86 
LESS. XXXIV. The Slur, 88 
LESS. XXXV. Measure of 
Speech, 95 



Page. 
LESS. XXXVI. Manner of 

reading Poetry, .... 113 
LESS. XXXVII. Monotone, 118 
LESS. XXXVIII. Analysis, 120 
LESS. XXXIX. Blending of 
words produced by accent- 
ed force, 128 

LESS. XL. Improvement of 

the Voice, .129 

Exercises for Reading, 134 

Eulogium on Shakspeare, ib. 

Alexander's Feast, . . . 137 

Othello's Apology for his 

Marriage, 141 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



A considerable portion of this book, as will be seen by the date in 
the Preface, was printed in January, 1835. Circumstances, which it is 
unnecessary to detail, have delayed the publication until the present 
time. 

R. G. P. 

12, Orange Street, May 2d, 1836. 



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